A View From The Other Side
by Bill K
Summary: Unless Neo-Sailor Moon can find an alternative, she and the senshi must choose between exterminating an entire species or allowing that species to destroy an entire world.
1. In Search Of A Compass

A View From The Other Side  
Chapter 1: "In Search Of A Compass"  
A Neo-Sailor Moon fanfic

By Bill K.

* * *

Sailor Moon and all related characters are (c)2013 by Naoko Takeuchi and are used without permission, but with respect. Story is (c)2013 by Bill K.

* * *

Just to forestall all of the questions ahead of time, this story has nothing whatsoever to do with My Little Pony in any way, shape or form.

* * *

Minako Aino waited at the door to the Asteroid Senshi's quarters. The environmental control computer had signaled the occupants that she was waiting, but no one had immediately passed her through. An eyebrow arched. She knew they were there, for the computer had told her so - - with one exception. That was the exception she was here to investigate. And it was probably the exception that was causing the delay in passing her into the quarters. Exhaling in frustration, Aino was about to use her entry code on the lock when the door hissed open.

"Hiding all of the contraband?" Minako smirked as she entered. Ves and Jun glanced nervously at each other. Palla-Palla sat amid her doll collection, but wouldn't look at anyone. The girl seemed upset.

"We haven't done anything," grunted Ves.

"Yet," Minako added, her eyebrow still arched. "Don't kid a kidder. You amateurs haven't thought of a trick I haven't already pulled."

"Aino-Sensei, there's nothing here that shouldn't be here," Jun offered.

"Yeah, but there's one thing that should," Minako assessed. "Where's Cere?"

"Around," Ves said vaguely.

"In the room 'around'?" Minako queried. "In the palace 'around'? Or in Crystal Tokyo 'around'?"

Ves just shrugged. Minako knew the girl was an experienced stonewaller, but she couldn't resist the challenge.

"And if I look in her bedroom, I'm going to find rumpled sheets, right?"

"Probably not," Ves replied. "She probably already made them. You know what a priss she is." Jun avoided eye contact. She seemed uneasy.

"OK, do it the hard way," sighed Minako. "Computer . . ."

"She didn't come home!" wailed Palla-Palla. Ves gave her an impatient look. "Well Palla-Palla is worried!"

"She's all right," snapped Ves.

"You're sure?" Minako asked. Jun exhaled in frustration.

"She probably stayed over at the home of that guy she's seeing," Jun admitted reluctantly. "I know she missed curfew . . ."

"Why do we even have to have a curfew, anyway?" railed Ves. "We're seventeen! Hell, Cere just turned eighteen! So what if she wants to stay out all night?"

"Because she has a job," Minako explained patiently, "just like you three have: Guarding the Princess." She saw it wasn't what any of them, Ves particularly, wanted to hear. "Look, I'm the last person to be lecturing someone on responsible behavior, especially when a guy is concerned. I understand true love, and I understand true lust, too. And I know how hard it is to be the Princess's guardian AND have a social life. But what happens if an emergency hits?"

"We can take care of it," Ves bristled. "Cover for her until she gets back."

Just then, the door hissed open and Cere posed dramatically.

"I'm back!" she exclaimed. Then she saw the room. "Oh. Aino-Sensei."

"Glad to see you," Minako said. "Was he worth it?"

Cere's grin grew ear to ear.

"Guess that answers that question," chuckled Minako. "I know it's a pain, but try to stay a little closer to the palace. And no over-nighters."

"Yes, Aino-Sensei," Cere mumbled.

"OK, I'll get out of here and give you girls time to dish," Minako said, heading for the door. "Oh, and morning classes are canceled, but afternoon combat training is still on." The door hissed closed after Minako left.

"So where did you and Kuroda-San go?" Jun asked.

"He took me to dinner, and then back to his studio," Cere sighed happily.

"And then?" Ves asked. Cere grinned. Palla-Palla's eyes bugged out and her hands flew to her mouth.

"Boy, you move fast," Jun shook her head.

"Hiroki-Chan is the hurricane, not me," Cere retorted. "He knows what he wants and he goes after it. Fortunately it's what I want, too." Cere scampered over to her computer station. "I have to get Hotaru and the Princess in on this, too."

"Don't bother calling the Princess," Jun advised. Cere's shoulders sagged.

"Again?" Cere asked incredulously

"I swear, I think she's going to start living up there," Ves muttered.

"Boy, that whole 'evil twin' thing just sent her into a tailspin," Cere shook her head. "Not even Hotaru can seem to get her out of it."

"I can kind of relate," Jun said. "I sometimes worry that something will turn me back to the Circus days. And I don't have nearly the power the Princess has."

"But the Princess is a good person," Palla-Palla piped up. "She's kind and she works hard, and she's smarter than anyone Palla-Palla knows, except for Miss Ami-Ma'am. She shouldn't be afraid. Palla-Palla isn't afraid of going back to the Circus days because she knows that's bad now. And the Princess always knew it was bad."

"At least she's not holed up in her room this time," Ves said, leaning her chair back on its back casters. "What she needs is some sort of crisis, so she can take command."

"You sure?" Jun asked. "I'm not sure how she'll react in a pressure situation now."

High above the palace, high above the city of Crystal Tokyo, a white horse with pristine white wings soared along the wind currents and glided over the land. Astride the back of the elegantly muscled creature was a young woman, her trails of pink hair fluttering behind her as the mane and tail of the horse fluttered. As they passed over people out and about, the people would look up and point at them. They would wave and smile. But the woman didn't notice. As the air whipped across her face, she would silently brood.

"Let me know when you get tired, Helios," Usa said suddenly.

"I shall, Maiden, though it has yet to occur," Helios thought back, for he couldn't speak in his Pegasus form.

The pair continued to soar leisurely over the city, out over the west end and back. Pegasus glanced back at his rider, then banked sharply to cross over the palace once more. Below, he could see Queen Serenity standing on the rooftop heli-pad, watching them.

They had gone flying like this, aimlessly, two to four times a week for a month since her encounter with the Princess Usagi of a different time line, the being who had surrendered to anger and petulance and destroyed everything dear to her. He had tried to console his Usa. He had tried to encourage her. He had tried to smother her melancholy with his burning passion for her. It seemed to work for a time, or else she was a good actress. But a few days later the cycle would repeat.

"I wish we could go to Elysian," he heard his rider say. "I wish I could just stay there forever."

"Elysian would be greater for your presence, Maiden," Helios thought to her. "But you would miss your family and friends."

"Maybe they'd be better off without me," she mumbled.

"And what of your own kind? There are few humans in Elysian."

"Your mom didn't have any trouble," Usa countered. "Besides, I could always become a horse. Think of it: You and me, running free through some field, not a care in the world."

The pair soared on, circling the southern portion of the city. Each low pass would elicit more gasps and exclamations from the people.

"What do you search for, Maiden?" he asked out of the blue. It was a moment before Usa even seemed to realize what he asked. She seemed startled for a beat, then retreated behind her gloom.

"Me, I guess," she said thoughtfully. "Who I am. What I am." She seemed to sigh. "What I could become."

"Black Lady is not a destiny etched in stone, Maiden," Helios advised her.

"I'd like to believe that," Usa replied. "But I've kind of had it forcefully jammed into my face. You can't ignore that. There's a dark side in me, Helios, and it keeps getting out at all the wrong times. I thought trying to be just like Mom could eliminate it. I thought trying to be better than Mom could. I thought knowing everything there was to know and being prepared for every possibility could."

"No one can be prepared for every eventuality, Maiden," Helios thought back.

"No duh," Usa exhaled. "The other Usa locked herself in her room and became a brain, and look what happened." Her hand went up and brushed her eyes. "I don't know what else to do. What am I not doing that I need to do to become Eternal Sailor Moon and not Eternal Black Lady?"

"Do you trust in me, Maiden?"

"Of course. Helios, I trust everything you say to me," Usa said. Then she smiled slyly. "Except when I notice you staring at my butt." Pegasus actually seemed to blush slightly.

"Do you trust in the advice of your friends, of Hotaru?"

"Yeah. They're only looking out for me."

"And the advice of your aunts and of your parents?"

"Where's this going?" Usa asked. The pair soared over the east end of the city, skirting the Pacific Ocean.

"You have great trust in everyone," Helios thought to her. "All but yourself."

"Gee, I wonder why," muttered the Princess.

"You obsess over your failures and ignore your successes," Helios continued. "You fret over the darkness within you to the point where you miss the nobility you possess. The only thing that holds you back, Maiden, is you. You and your inability to see what others see in you. You are the bright, shining dream light that brought me back from oblivion, Maiden. It did not get there by chance. But I fear, that if you continue to believe yourself to be weak and unworthy of the greatness within you, that this fear that preys upon you will become a self-fulfilling prophecy and you will drive yourself to become that which you fear most." Pegasus looked back at his rider. "And that would be a loss for all, but particularly for me."

Usa fell silent. They flew on for a few moments, Helios worried that he had bruised her psyche even more in his efforts to save it. But after an eternity, a soft feminine hand patted his front shoulder, right below his wing, and rubbed.

After another turn around the city, Pegasus arced in and came to a gentle landing atop the palace aeropad. Usa slid from his back and the great winged horse transformed into the white-haired guardian of pleasant dreams.

"Do you feel better now?" Helios inquired. Usa caressed his face.

"Some. Thanks," she said. "Can we go again in a few days? I'll try to be better company. But I've kind of gotten to like doing this."

"Anything that allows me to be in your presence is my favorite activity," Helios replied.

His arm slid around her waist. He leaned in and kissed her. Usa sighed happily and returned the gesture, draping her arm around his neck and kissing back. Finally they parted and Helios turned to the door leading back into the palace. Usa watched him go, her pink hair blowing in the head winds atop the palace. Then she turned and noticed her mother, Queen Serenity, standing a few feet from her. The woman had a pensive look and Usa knew why the Queen was pensive.

"Usa?" Serenity ventured cautiously.

"Mom, why is it whenever I come back from a date with Helios," Usa asked, turning her head to conceal the smirk she had on her mouth, "you're always waiting up for me?"

Instantly the Queen began to sputter and it was all her daughter could do to keep from laughing. Finally an impotent "brat" exploded from the Queen's delicate mouth. Usa relented, draped her arm around her mother, whom she dwarfed by at least six inches, and escorted her back into the palace.

* * *

"Hotaru," came the gentle voice of Ami Mizuno, startling Hotaru out of what preoccupied her.

Hotaru looked at the formula on the computer screen. For a moment, it looked fine. Then she realized that the potency of the chemical was too strong. Administered to a living organism, the chemical would result in death.

"I'm sorry!" Hotaru gasped. At once a calming hand came to rest on her shoulder.

"Concentration is essential when dealing with hazardous chemical compounds," Ami warned her student. "I understand, though, that the human mind can become preoccupied with emotions such as fear or worry. Perhaps when you're in such a state, you should avoid working in critical situations until you can properly focus, if possible."

"Yes, Sensei," Hotaru whimpered. She wouldn't look at Ami.

"I assume you're worried about Usa?"

Hotaru looked up and found a sympathetic expression on the vaunted doctor's face. It eased her mind. Ami wasn't judging her.

"What happened scared her," Hotaru admitted. "Seeing a complete copy of yourself turned into an unstoppable monster - - she's tried so hard to put that part of her past life away. But it keeps coming back."

"Have there been other such incidents?" Ami asked.

Hotaru tensed. Nobody knew about the altered history Desdemona had subjected them to, making them relive the events at D-Point. She and the Asteroids only knew because Usa had confided in them.

"I'm sorry," Hotaru demurred. "Usa wouldn't want me talking about it. I promised."

"Well I'm not going to force you to break your word," Ami assured her. "Hotaru, the life of a senshi isn't easy. Perhaps the most difficult part of the calling is being forced to watch the difficult, painful trials the person you're pledged to protect must endure in order to evolve into her final form. There were difficult times when I was helping Usagi become Queen Serenity. Personal pain was one thing; perhaps the most difficult part of it was watching her suffer with the burden of her role and the trials seeking to make her question her philosophy and commitment, and not being able to help her past it. And Usagi could often be her own worst enemy, just as young Usa is now. Rei once put it very succinctly: Our mission is to protect the Princess; sometimes we have to protect her from herself."

"How do I do that?" Hotaru asked plaintively.

"Well I can say with certainty that worrying will do very little," Ami told the girl. "That will only sap your ability to act as you see fit. And sometimes you must act to guide your charge away from unproductive behavior. Whether through logic, kindness, example or brute force if it comes to it, it is your duty to make certain your Princess is following the proper path."

Hotaru nodded thoughtfully.

"But first you must know what the proper path is," Ami advised. "That can only come through sound reasoning and a genuine desire to see right done. And you can't achieve such reasoning with a mind clouded with worry and doubt. Just as you can't properly administer to a sick patient with a mind clouded with worry and doubt."

"Our duty," Hotaru murmured. "Up to now, we've just been following her - - being there for her - - being her friend."

"And that's very important," Ami smiled. "But support and friendship alone isn't enough. You have to stand up when you see her about to do something wrong, should it ever happen, and make her see that it's wrong. From what I understand, the Usa in that other dimension didn't have a support system of friends willing to tell her 'no' when she was about to embark on improper or self-destructive behavior. This Usa does - - if her friends are willing to step up when she strays from the proper path."

Ami could see that Hotaru seemed overwhelmed by the advice she'd given. The doctor put her hands on the girl's slender shoulders.

"I know what you're feeling," Ami sympathized. "But I know you have the inner strength to do this. Plus, you and the other Asteroids all know what it's like to live with a past you aren't proud of. This can give you insight into whether you need to prod Usa or not. I hope you can find it within yourself to accept this challenge, Hotaru. Usa does need you all."

* * *

Returning to the Princess's room after a late night, Diana quietly crept into the room and surveyed it to see that nothing was amiss. A glance at the wall chronometer told her it was just after five-thirty in the morning. Diana considered her next move, because it was too close to Usa's wake up call to sleep and too early to do anything else. The cat's eyes shifted to the Princess, expecting to find her in the throws of a pleasant dream, courtesy of Helios. At once, Diana's eyes bulged.

"MY LADY!" Diana screeched in alarm. That instantly roused the sleeping Princess.

"What?" grunted Usa. She thrashed in the bed, unable momentarily to gain any leverage against the mattress and sheets. "Diana, what's . . .?"

Then, in the darkness, Usa could see something amiss. It went with the feeling she had. Something was wrong.

"Lights to forty percent," the Princess said. Dutifully the environmental control computer complied. Illuminated, Usa instantly saw what was wrong, but she could scarcely believe it. Stunned into an inability to act, Usa glanced at Diana. The cat's look of horror was enough to confirm that she wasn't dreaming, hallucinating or seeing an illusion. It was true.

She was no longer human.

She was a horse.

Continued in Chapter 2


	2. The Pony Princess

A View From The Other Side  
Chapter 2: "The Pony Princess"  
A Neo-Sailor Moon fanfic

By Bill K.

* * *

Usa was staring in disbelief at Diana, unable to articulate the shock she felt. Diana stared back, equally mute. For her friend, companion and Princess of seventeen years was now a pristine white horse with red eyes and a pink mane and tail, and white wings folded against her body.

Their attention was caught by the hiss of the bedroom door and both animals turned to the sound. Framed in the doorway was Helios. He had passed through in great haste, as Usa had programmed the door to grant him instant access. The concern was clear on his face, so he must have sensed her distress. But his concern mutated into utter amazement when he saw the love of his life.

"Maiden!" he gasped and flew to her side. This spurred Diana into action. The cat scampered out of the room to get her mother. "How has this happened?"

"You're asking me?" Usa mentally communicated, as she could no longer speak in her horse form. Suddenly she began thrashing in the bed. The bed creaked under her weight.

"Maiden, what are you doing?"

"I'm trying to get up!" Usa mentally bellowed. The sheets were wound around her front forelegs. Her back legs couldn't find a solid platform to push off of. Her wings extended, trying to balance herself, and swept her computer station from her desk. Frustrated, Usa began thrashing harder.

"Maiden!" Helios said urgently, placing his hands on her shoulder and neck. Usa calmed and looked up at him anxiously. "Allow me to assist you."

It was difficult, as Usa now weighed several hundred pounds. But a coordinated effort got her legs untangled and rolling to the point where she could slide out of the bed and stumble to all fours. It was at that moment Diana returned with Luna in tow.

"My word!" gasped the black cat. "It is you, My Lady?"

Usa only turned her head away in embarrassment.

"Diana, summon the King and Queen," Luna instructed. "I'll stay here . . ."

"No!" Usa thought-cast urgently. The cats looked up at her. "I - - I don't want anybody to see me like this! Especially them!"

"Stuff and nonsense, My Lady!" Luna replied sternly. "This problem isn't going to be solved by hiding in your room and wishing it away. Why Dr. Mizuno is already in route." She turned to Diana. "Go!"

Diana streaked out of the room.

"But Aunt Luna!" Usa thought back, stamping her hoof on the floor.

"My Lady, I quite realize that this is certainly a traumatic, and possibly embarrassing, situation," Luna admonished. "Although I can't see what could be so embarrassing about it. Nevertheless, I am familiar with the sensation of one's form unexpectedly mutating. The best course, once one has recovered from the initial shock, is to deal with it. And hiding in shame is not dealing with it."

"I'm not ashamed!" Usa thought back. But everyone, including her, knew the pronouncement carried little credibility.

Usa felt Helios drape his arm around her neck and softly stroke her nose with his hand. The gesture felt soothing - - and it was Helios.

Thank the Gods for Helios.

By the time the King and Queen arrived - - the Queen having transformed her appearance from the frazzled wreck that Endymion has wrenched out of bed into something closer to her normal state through the power of the Silver Crystal - - Ami was already there. She was using a hand-held medical scanner on Usa. Hotaru was there as well, assisting Dr. Mizuno as well as lending support to her best friend. Upon seeing Usa, the Queen gasped loudly, then fled to the horse's side.

"Usa!" Serenity cried, flinging her arms around the equine's neck.

"Hi, Mom," Usa thought glumly. "How did you know it was me?"

"As if I couldn't tell my baby!" the Queen sobbed. "Who did this to you?"

"Still trying to figure that out, Mom," Usa thought.

The horse looked over to Endymion and the King saw that same needy look he'd seen so many times over the course of seventeen years. He moved in from the other side of Serenity and hugged the horse. Usa pressed her head to his chest.

"Family Equidae, genus Propalaeotherium, sub-family Equinae, tribe Equini, genus Equus," Ami said, repeating what her scanner told her. "Except for the wings, of course."

"Is that bad?" gasped Serenity.

"That's the Latin terminology for the common horse, Serenity," Ami told her. "Brain function and capacity are abnormally large for this species as well."

"You're saying someone transplanted my daughter's brain into a horse's body?" Endymion asked sharply.

"That's a possible theory," warned Ami. "It's just as likely that the molecular structure of Usa's body was rearranged scientifically - - or magically, I suppose - - from one species to another."

"How do we change her back?" Serenity demanded.

"To even possibly answer that accurately," Ami replied cautiously, "I would have to know how she was transformed to begin with. For all I know, she had an odd dream and her crystal did this to her."

"Helios?" Usa thought to her love.

"No, Maiden," he told her. "You dreamed of no such thing last night. You are not responsible for this."

"Then who could have . . ." Hotaru began to wonder.

But everyone stopped and turned. They could sense the subtle shift in the room. Serenity was approaching Usa, her hands glowing silver. As she reached her daughter, Helios backed away. Her hands came up and lightly cupped around the head of the horse, just below the ears. Silver light began to flood through the room. Serenity's hands grew brighter and brighter. The light emitted by them became more intense. Ami's eyes instantly flew down to her medical scanner. The bio-energy being emitted by Queen Serenity was once again off her scale. But as seconds became minutes and Usa didn't transform back into a human, Ami became more and more worried about the physical toll being exacted on the Queen.

"Mom, stop it!" Usa thought-cast finally. She jerked her head away and backed up.

"Usa!" Serenity said urgently.

"Mom, you're straining to your limits," Usa thought to her. "I can feel it."

"But Usa . . .!"

"Mom, I don't want to be responsible for killing you in THIS dimension, too!"

Stung back to reality, Serenity gave in to the logic of the sentiment. Sensing a presence, the Queen turned and found her other three friends in the room.

"Wow, kids will try anything these days," mumbled Minako. Rei stepped forward.

"I'd like to try," the priest said.

"Go ahead," Ami nodded. "Perhaps the problem lies more in your realm of expertise."

"Hold still, Muffin," Rei said softly as she approached. "Try to clear your mind."

Complying, the horse closed her eyes and grew still. Rei's eyes remained focused on her. The priest's hand extended and gently came to rest on the horse's nose. Everyone watched tensely as Rei examined sights and sounds forever barred to them.

"There is a mystical feel to the energy of Usa's spirit now," Rei murmured. "I think that mystical energy is the root of this. It's an energy I've never encountered before in its current form - - but there's something vaguely similar," and she suddenly glanced at Helios, "to you."

"How so?" Helios asked. Rei examined Usa's aura again.

"Ancestral," Rei responded finally.

The news snapped Usa to attention and broke the light trance Rei was in. The horse looked to Helios with a new energy and sense of wonder. Suddenly her condition didn't seem quite as bad as it had been.

"Can you help her?" Serenity asked anxiously.

Rei shook her head. "Only the source of this mystical energy can change her back," Rei replied. She glanced at Usa. "Unless Usa can find the power within herself to regain control of her form and change herself back. It's in there. You just have to figure out how to unlock it."

"Somehow I don't think that's happening anytime soon," Usa thought to everyone. "Thanks for trying, Aunt Rei. At least we know more than we did."

"I'll do a reading," Rei told Usa, cupping the horse's nose in her hands for emphasis. "Don't panic. We will find out how to cure this." With that, the priest turned and swept out of the room.

"Usa?" Makoto ventured timidly. "How do you feel?"

"Well," Usa began, "I'm getting sensations from odd angles. It doesn't hurt or anything, but - - I see things differently now, hear things, feel things. It's all different."

Just then Palla-Palla burst into the room, the other Asteroids trailing behind.

"HORSEY!" she exclaimed. "The Princess is a horsey!"

"Holy . . .!" Ves began.

Jun just stared up in shock at Makoto.

"How did you do it, Princess?" Palla-Palla asked excitedly. "Can you change like Ves-Ves does now?"

"Can everyone step outside, please," Endymion spoke up, his voice calm but demanding respect. He had noticed the shifting expression in his daughter's eyes. "Give my daughter a little room and a little peace to - - adjust to this change."

"Quite so!" piped up Luna. "This is the Princess's bedroom, not a carnival sideshow! Do your gawking elsewhere!"

"We didn't mean anything," Cere argued. "We just want to help."

"And your assistance will no doubt be needed later," Luna replied. "Please be at the ready." Everyone began to head for the door except for Serenity.

"Helios," Usa thought quickly. "Can you stick around?" She glanced at her mother. "Mom, can Helios and I have a few moments? I'll be OK."

"Are you sure?" Serenity asked anxiously.

"Come, come, Your Majesty," Luna fussed, lightly rapping Serenity's ankle with her forehead. "Give the girl a few moments."

When they were alone, Helios and Usa faced each other. Helios waited patiently for his love to articulate her needs, while Usa searched for what she wanted to thought-cast.

"Aunt Rei said," Usa began, "that the energy might be connected to you? To one of your ancestors?"

"It was as much a surprise to me, Maiden," Helios replied. "But I know so little of my ancestry that I could not say." He paused and thought. "Mother did tell me stories that my father had told her, of a world among the mystical dimensional folds where unicorns and winged horses thrive. I am vaguely aware of such a world, though I know little of it."

"Could he have come from this world?" Usa asked. "Could someone from that world have done this to me?"

"It would be a good place to start looking," Helios nodded. "Please do not be too distressed about this situation, Maiden. I vow to you that we will find the answer."

"Don't worry. I can hold out until we find a way to change me back," Usa assured him. Then she glanced sidelong at him. "Unless . . . you prefer me this way."

"The form is not important, Maiden," Helios said, stroking along her neck. "The light of your beautiful soul shines through no matter what form you take. And that is what I came to love so dearly." Then he smiled. "Although I must confess, in this form you have the most alluring hind quarters I have ever witnessed."

"Think so?" Usa responded, a tremor of joy in her thoughts. "Maybe I should stay this way." She shook her head. "No, I'm too used to being human. Come on. Let's tell the others about this horse world. Maybe we can form a plan."

Helios walked, and Usa clopped, to the door. As the door hissed open, Serenity stumbled back into the room.

"Mom!" sighed Usa mentally.

"I wasn't listening!" the Queen proclaimed. "I was just leaning against the door!"

"Helios may have a lead on how this might have happened," Usa thought to everyone. "As soon as Aunt Rei gets done with her reading, I'd like to discuss this. Maybe we can all figure something out."

* * *

"Do you really think I can do this?" Usa thought to Helios as the pair ventured out onto the heli-pad atop the palace. The white horse with the pink mane stepped carefully, still getting used to walking on four hooves.

"I think you can do anything you set yourself to master, Maiden," Helios told her.

"But . . ." she began.

"If you would rather remain inside, I quite understand," he said. "But consider how much enjoyment you derive from flying astride my back. Then consider how much more you might derive flying under your own power."

"But what if I can't?" she asked.

"If you fall, I will catch you," Helios assured her. "If you fail, I will still love you." His form shimmered and shifted, and moments later Helios was in his Pegasus form. To Usa, he was always bigger than life in this form, but now they seemed equals. "Extend your wings, Maiden."

She did so and noticed their shadow upon the pad. Her mind raced.

"Now push down with them, hard."

As instructed, Usa pushed down. Instantly her body lifted off the pad as if pulled by an irresistible force. Then the force gave out and she landed back on the pad. Usa looked over at Helios in wonderment.

"Now do it twice," he thought to her.

She did so and her lift sustained longer. Helios began flapping his wings as well, gaining altitude as she did. Watching and emulating what he did, Usa began to go higher and higher.

"The wind seems to be fighting me," Usa thought to him. "It feels like it wants to push me over."

"Those are the air currents, Maiden," Helios related. "Choose one and ride it. Let your extended wings be a canopy that the air currents fill. And if you feel yourself falling, you need only push down to regain your height."

Doing as she was instructed, Usa felt herself be carried up into the sky. The air would dip suddenly and she would experience a moment of panic. But a push of her wings restored her to the sky above. Helios trailed protectively behind her, but she scarcely noticed him. The air rushing through her face, her mane and her wings became an intoxicant.

"Helios!" she thought out. "I'm flying!"

"You do more than fly, Maiden," Helios thought back. "You are soaring."

Playfully he swung underneath her and then looped over her head. Soon they were ducking and darting, rolling through the sky while those on the ground below could only look up and stare in envy. Helios found Usa to be a quick study and the pair were executing complex stunts and chasing through the heavens after each other. It was an entire new world up here, one far more intimate than when she was merely astride Helios. And to think her initial reaction to being in this form was one of horror.

"Let us descend, Maiden, lest we overtax ourselves," Helios advised her. Though she didn't want to, Usa dutifully followed him down. Her landing on the aeropad was a stumbling one, but she landed safely. Impulsively she cantered up to Helios and they rubbed noses.

"That was fantastic, Helios!" she beamed. "Thank you for showing me that."

A sound made them turn. Out of the shadows of an overhang came Hotaru.

"I saw you flying," she told Usa. "You really looked beautiful up there."

"Thanks," gasped Usa mentally. "You should try it if you ever get the chance."

"Hino-Sensei has come out of the shrine," Hotaru informed them. "I think she may have found something out."

Inside, everyone met in one of the conference rooms in the palace. It was crowded enough with the King and Queen, all of Serenity's senshi, all of Usa's senshi and three cats. But trying to fit a winged horse into the room taxed it to its limits. Serenity finally had to teleport the conference table out into the hall to comfortably accommodate everyone.

"I received a vision," Rei explained, "of a winged horse, surrounded on all sides by black shadow. The horse - - the Pegasus, I guess - - was brown with a black mane. It spoke to me, pleaded with me to send the Princess of the Moon and the Prince of Helicon, pleaded for their help." Rei paused. She seemed troubled by what she was thinking. "And then - - the Pegasus withered to dust and blew away."

"Somebody killed the horsey?" whimpered Palla-Palla.

"So who is the Prince of Helicon?" Minako asked.

"In Greek mythology," Ami spoke up, "Mt. Helicon is the pristine land created by the winged equine demi-god Pegasus. My guess would be that Helios would be the Prince of Helicon."

"Perhaps your guess is correct," Helios said. "When Mother spoke of the land where my father's ancestors supposedly came from, she said he mentioned its name being Helicon. Perhaps this vision is from the world that may house my ancestors."

"So why would they change Usa into a horse?" Cere asked.

"That would be a question to ask them," Helios replied. "As would what menaces them, for Hino-Sensei's vision showed them to perhaps be in dire straits. I will contact my mother to see if there is a way to this world."

Continued in Chapter 3


	3. The Journey To Helicon

A View From The Other Side  
Chapter 3: "Journey To Helicon"  
A Neo-Sailor Moon fanfic

By Bill K.

* * *

Helios sat on the edge of his bed in his quarters, his eyes closed and his expression showing deep concentration. Usa, still in the form of a white winged horse with pink mane and tail, watched him. As the minutes dragged on, her attention began to wander to the Spartan decor of the room. Helios had a bed, a toilet and a computer station he rarely used. Otherwise it was just four walls. When she questioned him on it, Helios had maintained that it was all he needed and that the privacy of the room was more important than its look.

"This room could use a little color," Usa thought. "A couple of decorative pillows. Maybe a couple of pictures on the walls, or some plants in the corners, just to give it some variety."

"Cere, Hotaru Tomoe, Jun, Palla-Palla and Ves desire entry," the environmental computer announced. Usa glanced at Helios, but the announcement hadn't disturbed him. She started to signal the computer to pass them in, but remembered that she couldn't speak in this form. Softly she clopped over to the door and hit the manual release.

"Is it OK if we come in?" Hotaru ventured. Usa nodded and she and the others entered. Cere immediately looked the place over with a critical eye.

"God, he actually lives in this dump?" Cere scowled.

"Nicely put, diplomat's daughter," Jun jabbed.

"Well this room could use a little color," Cere maintained. "A couple of pictures on the walls, or some plants in the corners. Maybe a few decorative pillows on the bed, just to give it some variety." Hotaru noticed Usa giving Cere an odd look.

"Any word yet?" Jun asked Usa.

"I guess Helios is still communicating with Candide," Usa thought back.

"So this Helicon place may be where Helios is from?" Ves inquired.

"His family history," Usa corrected her. "Helios's father was a unicorn. And as far as I know, he was native to Elysian. But his family further back may have emigrated from this Helicon place. Candide will probably know more."

"Princess, you're a very pretty horsie," Palla-Palla said. "Are you going to stay a pretty horsie so you can marry Prince Horsie-Man?"

Usa didn't answer right away. An awkward silence filled the air.

"Way to go, Baby," snorted Cere.

"Smack!" Palla-Palla replied petulantly, hitting Cere in the upper arm with her fist.

"Helios likes it," Usa responded finally. "And there are some things I can do in this form that I can't do as a human." She shook her head. "But have you ever tried using a computer station with hooves?"

It was then she noticed Helios smirking through her conversation. Irritated, she stamped her hoof on the floor.

"Mother sends her regards, Maiden," Helios said, not quite able to wipe the smile off of his face. "She is eager to see you again, though regretful that it is under these circumstances. She says she is aware of the world known as Helicon and that a jumping off point to this world may be found in Elysian. You and your senshi may travel there from Elysian."

"Guess we're going on a road trip," Ves announced.

"Oh, I better text Hikaru and let him know," Cere sighed, pulling out her PDA.

"You tell him everything?" Ves asked sourly.

"WE HAD A DATE TONIGHT!" snapped Cere.

"You guys have a date every night," huffed Ves. "Why don't you just marry him and get it over with?"

"Can Palla-Palla ride the pretty horsies when we get there?" Palla-Palla exclaimed.

Everyone headed out of Helios's quarters to prepare for the trip. That's when they found Queen Serenity lingering in the corridor outside.

"I WASN'T SPYING!" the Queen gasped. Usa emitted a tired sigh.

"Mom, Candide has a lead on this Helicon place," Usa thought to her. "Helios, the senshi and I are going to head to Elysian to follow up, if that's OK."

"Would you like me to come along?" Serenity asked hopefully.

"I don't know how sticky this might get, Mom," Usa replied. "Maybe you'd better stay behind - - not take any unnecessary risks, you know?"

"There's going to be risks?" Serenity asked, her "mom" instincts on full alert.

"Don't know. Maybe," Usa thought. "But Helios will be with me, and so will Hotaru and the Asteroids. We can handle it."

Still Serenity lingered.

"Mom," Usa thought, a tone of warning to her thought-cast.

"You are going to realize how difficult this is when you have children some day," Serenity fussed. Her shoulders sagged. "Good luck, and please be safe."

"We will, Mom," Usa thought. The group headed down the corridor.

"AND I'M GOING TO SPOIL YOUR KIDS ROTTEN!" Serenity bellowed down the hall.

"Never doubted that," Usa thought to the others. Hotaru giggled and put her hand to her mouth.

The denizens of Elysian, both animal and human, turned to the whirlwind of air and debris growing in the courtyard just beyond the great temple of Elysian. The cyclone grew and widened, blowing furiously against all in the area. And yet there was no fear, for the population of Elysian still trusted any and all to not be a threat. The phenomenon grew to nearly eight feet tall and twelve feet wide before it climaxed and began to shrink away. As the whirlwind began to dissipate, seven figures could be seen. Five of them were human, their hands clasped. A sixth human stood in the center with a majestic winged horse. Murmurs went up when the winds died away and revealed Helios to be standing next to a strange white and pink Pegasus.

"Helios!" came a happy exclamation from the entrance to the palace.

The visitors turned and saw Candide, Queen Mother of Elysian, sweep up and take Helios in her arms. The woman, still statuesque and vital, her long white hair flowing behind her, crushed herself to her son and pressed her face to his shoulder. Sailor Pallas beamed happily to one side while the others waited for the reunion to climax.

"My son, I have greatly missed you," Candide said, caressing his cheek, "despite your mental visits. To touch you again . . ." Reluctantly she disengaged and turned to Usa. "Princess Usagi, accept my sympathy for your current plight. I will do all that I can to help you rectify this." Usa bobbed her head in acknowledgment. "Do you need assistance mounting the steps to the temple?"

In response, Usa spread her wings and with a single downward thrust launched her equine body up over the six steps to the porch of the great temple. The horse looked back at them proudly. Candide turned to her son.

"I sense your hand in this," she judged with a smile.

"She is a quick study," Helios answered with pride.

Inside, though, as the senshi sat near Candide and Helios on chiseled stone benches, they all noticed Usa nervously pacing within the open area of the temple.

"Mother," Helios began, "tell me all that you know of Helicon. We think that this and that world are connected, and that Helicon may be threatened."

"You should be able to know the tale yourself, given your vision," Candide told him. "Perhaps your vision is clouded by other concerns. Very well: Helicon is a world slipped within the dimensions of magic, much as Elysian is. It is a world where beings such as your father live."

"A world of horses?" Usa thought-cast.

"A world of mythical horses," Candide corrected. "Unicorns, winged horses, steeds with manes and tails made of pure flame, all native to that land. Occasionally they would pass through the barrier and explore other worlds, such as your Earth, or here in Elysian. They were the inspiration of Earth's ancient Greeks, as well as ancient civilizations in Asia, Africa and North America. They still visit on occasion, though I have not heard of one on Earth in centuries."

"Are they aggressive or war-like?" Sailor Saturn ventured.

"They have been known to have their petty disputes among themselves," Candide explained. "They have never shown any aggressive intent against outsiders."

"So," Usa asked thoughtfully, "why change me into one of them?"

"That I cannot say for certain," Candide answered. "It is not like them. This can only be a mistake, I think. Those of Helicon are not evil, and only aggressive when threatened."

"Did you threaten them somehow?" Juno asked Usa.

"I didn't even know they existed until now!" Usa shot back. "If I insulted somebody, I'll apologize. But let me know first."

"Clearly we must travel to this world and learn who has done this and why," Helios summarized. "Mother, can you show me the way?"

In response, Candide reached out and touched her son's crystal horn. There was a small flash of light. After it dissipated, Candide withdrew her hand.

"Follow your crystal horn, son," she smiled. "It will lead you truly."

"I thank you, Mother," Helios nodded, standing. Immediately Candide stood, too. That brought the senshi to their feet.

"Of course you wish to leave immediately," Candide said with some emotion creeping into her voice. "Perhaps - - when you have accomplished your task, you could return to us for a short time? You and Princess Usagi?"

"We'd love to, Candide," Usa thought to her. "I adore visiting Elysian."

Candide returned the thought with a warm smile. Usa, Helios and the senshi turned and headed out to the courtyard outside of the temple. As they left, Vesta noticed the protruding lower lip on Sailor Pallas.

"What's up?" she asked Pallas.

"Pallas wanted to ride the horsies," Pallas replied glumly.

* * *

Minako Aino sat in the empty Classroom One, where the Princess and the Senshi took their school lessons. Rather than sit at the lectern at the head of the room, she sat at one of the computer stations in the classroom, absently thinking. Unheeded, Makoto Kino came in to pick up some lesson plans on crystals she had to study for her next teaching assignment. She secured them, stuffed them into the pocket of her form-fitting polymer fiber-mesh slacks and started to go. Then she noticed Minako.

"You're deep in thought," Makoto remarked.

"What tipped you?" Minako asked absently.

"I could smell the smoke," jabbed Makoto.

"Hilarious. You should take that act on the road," Minako muttered without looking at her.

"So what's up? Some young stud fail to notice you?"

"With this body?" Minako asked crossly, gesturing to herself. "No, I had to bust Cere on a curfew violation."

"Girls in love don't pay attention to clocks," Makoto smiled wistfully.

"That's the thing," Minako replied, becoming more animated. "She's eighteen. She's not a girl anymore. Maybe she shouldn't have to answer to a curfew anymore."

"Age of consent is still twenty in Crystal Tokyo," Makoto reminded her.

Minako waved like the statement was irrelevant. "They're all pretty close to being adults now. Maybe they need to have the chance to make their own decisions and live by their own judgment." She pointed at Makoto. "Look at you. You were on your own and making your own decisions at thirteen."

"Not by choice," Makoto reminded her. "And there were lots of times when I wished I had some parental guidance." Makoto took a seat next to Minako. "But I see where you're coming from. Maybe they do need a few less rules. Hell, Usa barely obeys them now."

"That's what I'm talking about," Minako nodded.

"But they do have responsibilities," Makoto brought up. "What if something happens when they're running around enjoying their freedom?"

"We juggled careers, social lives and being senshi for decades," Minako argued. "Sure, there may come a time when they're needed and one or two can't respond in time. That happened to us. We handled it. And they're just as good as we were." She winked at Makoto. "We ought to know. We trained 'em."

"You make a good case," Makoto admitted, "which in itself is scary. If you want to run it past Endymion and Serenity, I'll back you. I think Ami might agree to it, too." She smirked at Minako. "Don't expect any support from Rei, though."

"Once again you underestimate Rei's judgment, Watson," Minako grinned, imitating a movie version of Sherlock Holmes. "She may be hopelessly stuck in the last millennia, but she's not stupid. She'll see the wisdom of it. And if she can't, I'll just persuade her."

"She said modestly," Makoto added. That drew a friendly smirk from her friend of a thousand plus years.

* * *

The teleport whirlwind began to recede. Helios had been holding hands with Sailor Saturn and the Asteroids so he could mentally guide the teleport along the path his mother had given him. Usa had been in the middle of the circle, as before. But as the whirlwind dissipated, Sailor Saturn began to panic. Helios and Juno were no longer holding her hands. Her eyes darted first to Usa. She was still there, but seemed alarmed. Saturn's gaze turned to Helios on her left. But Helios was in his Pegasus form. Her eyes swept right. Other winged horses were there as well, and by the color of their manes it had to be her fellow senshi. A feeling of dread welled up within her. Steeling herself, Saturn looked down. Below her were the legs of a midnight black horse. Saturn's gaze shot up and locked onto Usa.

"Welcome to my nightmare," Usa said. Then she seemed to start. "Hey, I can talk now!"

"I'M A HORSE!" shrieked Sailor Ceres. Indeed, she was a cream colored horse with a magenta mane and tail, and white wings.

"I-I didn't feel anything happen!" Sailor Juno exclaimed. She was now light brown with a green mane and tail and light brown wings.

"Perhaps it is a phenomenon of this world," Pegasus suggested. "I did not will myself to my Pegasus form, and yet I wear it."

"Or maybe it's the work of the same being that changed me," Usa said, looking around suspiciously.

"PALLAS IS A HORSIE! PALLAS IS A HORSIE!" Pallas shouted for joy, and began hopping and cantering around like a newborn colt. She was a dapple gray with light blue mane and tail, and gray wings.

"ONLY YOU WOULD THINK THAT'S A GOOD THING!" fumed Ceres.

"OK, everybody calm down," Usa advised.

"CALM DOWN? CALM DOWN? I'M AN ANIMAL!"

"And the sooner we find an antidote, the sooner we can make sure it's not permanent," Usa said sternly. "The first question I want answered is do we still have our senshi abilities?"

"Let's find out," nodded Vesta, now a deep chestnut horse with crimson mane and tail and chestnut wings. "Fauna Assimilation, grizzly bear!"

And as the herd of senshi watched, Vesta transformed into a large black grizzly bear.

"Looks like," Usa nodded. "Juno?"

"Aqua Initiation!" Juno called out, then pointed her hoof at the ground. Within seconds, a small spout of water broke through the surface of the ground and bubbled into a widening pool.

"Well, no sense wasting the irrigation," fussed Cere. "Floral Stimulation!" Instantly a bed of foreign, but beautiful pink and red flowers blossomed from the mud made by Juno's miniature gusher and filled in the patch until the water was cut off.

Giggling happily, Pallas launched herself into the air, taking to flying with almost savant skill. She made three loops in the air, then called out "Beautiful Incantation!" Six stones levitated into the air and began orbiting around Pallas as she climbed into the sky, looping and soaring.

"Aw, Hell, I better go get her," Vesta grumbled. She let her bear transformation fade back to a chestnut winged horse, then launched into the air after her fellow senshi.

"Well I can't use all of my powers," Saturn announced, "because I can't hold my glaive." Then she bent down and picked the glaive up between her teeth. "Unlesh I ho'd id lyg disz." That elicited a snort of laughter from Usa.

"Maybe you better leave it here for now," Usa said, trying not to giggle. Sobering, the Princess looked over their surroundings.

The place on Helicon they landed upon was a pastoral setting. A rolling meadow beneath a setting sun was all she could see for miles around. Behind them was a thick, lush forest, pristine and untouched by human civilization. Trees and bushes dotted the landscape on the other side, and the blue of the sky was giving way to violet, signaling nightfall. But something was off. The violet seemed more like a bruise on the sky than a hue. The trees and bushes in one patch of the horizon seemed drab and lifeless. Usa looked down and spotted a path that was different that they rest. She walked over and pawed at the grass with her hoof. The grass seemed to be in the early stages of brittleness and lacked the vitality of a healthy plant. Only the patch of flowers just grown by Ceres seemed normal.

"Ceres," Usa began. "Does this path of grass seem healthy to you?"

Ceres closed her eyes and listened. After a few moments, she opened them again.

"No, they're not," she said, with a tremor in her voice. "It's almost like they're dying."

"Was this path worn by frequent travel?"

"That's not it. They talk about 'the darkness' stealing their lives."

"What kind of 'darkness'?" Usa asked.

"They don't know," Ceres responded. "They just know they're dying. All they do is ask 'why'."

"Maybe that's the dire emergency here," Usa concluded. "What do you think, Helios?"

"The death of the flora would be a catastrophe for a world of herbivores, Maiden," Pegasus responded.

"So where is everybody?" Juno posed. "You don't suppose the catastrophe has already happened, do you?"

"I sense others," Pegasus assured them. "I do not know why we have not seen any other beings, but there are others here."

"Maybe we should take to the sky," Usa suggested. "Scout around some."

"Fly?" gulped Ceres. She extended her wings slightly. "Just because I suddenly have these things doesn't mean I suddenly know how to use them."

"It's easy," Usa responded.

"For you, maybe," grumped Ceres.

"Um," Juno interjected. Usa noticed she was on edge and suddenly became alert. "We've got company."

As if cued, a pack of eight gray timber wolves roughly the size of Great Danes emerged from the brush. Their front shoulders were arched to spring at any moment. The wolves advanced slowly, their heads down, eyes locked and glaring on the five equines, and their teeth bared.

Continued in Chapter 4


	4. A Unicorn Called Nerites

A View From The Other Side  
Chapter 4: "A Unicorn Called Nerites"  
A Neo-Sailor Moon fanfic

By Bill K.

* * *

A chill ran down the spines of the five winged equines as a pack of eight gray wolves, each one the size of a Great Dane, slowly advanced on them. Each wolf had its shoulders hunched and its teeth bared as it glared at the intruders. Ceres, Juno and Saturn all wanted to attack, but stayed their attacks, waiting for Usa to command it.

"Maiden," Pegasus said urgently. "Perhaps it would be best . . ."

"What are you horse scum doing here?" demanded the lead wolf. She was different from the others, in that there was a streak of black and white fur mixed in with the gray on her forehead. "This is wolf territory!"

Usa took two careful steps forward, moving in as non-threatening a manner as she could manage. Saturn felt her heart leap into her throat and cautiously put down the glaive in order to be ready to throw up her Silence Wall.

"We mean no harm," Usa told the lead wolf. "We're strangers here. We weren't aware of any territorial claims."

"Then you have stumbled into a battle for your lives," the lead wolf snapped. "Go, now, and do not return, and perhaps we will let you live!"

"They poach on our hunting grounds!" another of the pack snarled. "Kill them for it!"

"Yes, kill them!" another demanded.

"We aren't poaching," Usa maintained, trying to sound peaceful without sounding weak and possibly inviting an attack. "We're searching for where the horses live. If you can direct us, we will gratefully leave."

"They are not here," the pack leader replied with barely restrained malevolence. "And the longer you stay, the greater your risk."

"Very well. We'll go," Usa said, choosing not to hide her distaste for the reaction of the wolves. "Please accept my apologies if we have offended . . ."

Juno saw it first. A black shape dived out of the sky and slammed into the pack leader, sending her sprawling awkwardly. The rest of the pack gave ground, but Usa could see they were ready to attack at a moment's notice. When the shape came to a stop, everyone could see it was a huge longhorn sheep with massive brown wings growing out of its back. For a moment, everyone thought it was another bizarre creature native to Helicon. Then it spoke and they knew.

"Fauna Combination, gorilla elephant!" Vesta shouted.

Instantly she changed, becoming a massive fifteen foot tall black furred gorilla. Clearly the wolves had never seen such a sight before. They all hunched low to the ground, snarling out warnings, each one ready to attack or flee with a single movement. Vesta lunged forward for the main body of the pack. This invited the wolves on the outer points of the pack to attack. They leaped forward and buried their fangs in Vesta's thighs.

"Floral Stimulation!" Ceres called out.

As Vesta swatted one of the wolves away with a powerful swing of one arm, the grasses in the area began growing at an abnormal rate. In moments they had grown long, woven themselves into crude ropes, then snaked around two of the wolves. Despite the frantic struggles of the wolves, the grass ropes pulled them down and pinned them to the ground, holding them motionless in a tight net. Juno was about to bring her water powers to bear as well.

"STOP!" shouted Usa. Juno and Ceres pulled up, but Vesta roared menacingly at the wolves. "VESTA, NOW!"

Vesta stopped, but continued to glare menacingly at the wolf pack. The pack returned the glare with equal venom.

"Ceres, release them," the white winged horse said. To her left, Pallas was gently landing from her flight, looking around anxiously. Ceres complied and the two wolves scampered back to the pack. "I apologize for their actions. Vesta thought you were going to attack us. She was only defending us."

"Go and don't return here," warned the pack leader. "You won't be safe if you do."

At Usa's signal, everyone backed up three steps, then turned to leave. Vesta continued to back up while she watched the pack until she reached a certain distance. Only then did she turn. The wolves watched them until they were no longer in sight. Only then did they go back to their own lives.

"I wish you hadn't done that, Vesta," Usa said as she and the senshi walked through a meadow. "I had the situation diffused."

"You don't know anything about pack animals, 'Princess'," Vesta shot back. She was back in her winged horse form. "The only thing that diffuses a situation like that is a superior show of force. Trying to reason with one of them will get your throat ripped out."

"Well these pack animals could talk," Usa argued. "I think that indicates a greater intelligence than what you're used to dealing with on Earth. In that case, a superior show of force only makes an enemy."

"Vesta, you're hurt!" Pallas exclaimed. Everyone looked. Blood was seeping from gashes on both of Vesta's hind thighs.

"It's nothing," grunted Vesta.

"Let Saturn heal you," Usa said and everyone could tell it wasn't a request. Vesta made a face, but stopped and allowed Saturn to approach. The black horse with the violet mane bent her head down near the wound and closed her eyes. As if by magic, the wound began to recede. The skin magically knit and in moments the wound was gone. Saturn repeated the process for the other thigh. While this occurred, Usa touched noses with Pegasus.

"Any idea where we're going?" she asked him.

"Toward the south, Maiden," Pegasus replied, gesturing with his crystal horn. "I sense the mythical equines of this place massed in that direction."

"OK," she nodded, then turned back to the group. "We'll make the best time if we fly. For those of you who haven't flown before, take a few minutes to get used to operating your wings. Vesta and Pallas can show you how its done."

A herd of unicorns, grazing in the forlorn and woeful grasslands to the south of where the wolves hunted, looked up. Seven winged horses flew overhead, headed for the great pasture. Since herds of winged horses flying overhead was not a unique occurrence in this world, the unicorns returned to their search for grass that wasn't over-grazed.

"Horsies with horns!" Pallas exclaimed from above, the wind whipping through her blue mane as she flew. "This world has everything!"

"Everything except adequate vegetation, apparently," Usa added. "Although I've noticed the animal population seems larger in this area."

"Noticed that, too," Vesta confirmed. "Mostly small and medium size rodent types. It's probably what the wolves hunt. Those wolves were the only predators I've seen so far. Everything else has been plant-eaters."

"Peachy," scowled Ceres.

"Usa, look to your right," Saturn spoke up.

Everyone glanced right. In the midst of a clump of trees was a huge black spot, like a low hanging cloud or mist. The black mist seemed to engulf everything around it. The top of one tree stuck out the top of the cloud and it was withered and gray.

"No!" Ceres cried out.

"What is it, Ceres?" Usa asked.

"Those trees!" Ceres exclaimed. "They're dying! The ones in the center of that cloud are already dead!"

"Is that cloud doing it," Usa wondered out loud, "or is that cloud a by-product of whatever killed those trees?"

Without warning, Ceres veered off from the group toward the trees.

"Ceres!" Usa shouted after her.

"I have to try to help them!" Ceres called back.

However, as she got directly over the cloud, Ceres began to struggle to stay aloft. Her wing motion became erratic. She lost altitude. Her legs flailed for purchase and found none. And the cloud began to rise up to meet her.

"She's in trouble!" Saturn cried urgently.

"Pallas!" snapped Usa. "Pull her back!"

"Beautiful Incantation!" Pallas shouted.

Invisible hands reached out and seized Ceres around the ribs, halting her descent. Ceres was still struggling to gain altitude, but her actions were clearly clumsy and uncoordinated. Everyone heard Pallas grunt and glanced back at her. The horse was struggling to lift Ceres' increased body weight back from falling into the mist. And the cloud of mist seemed to grow closer.

"That cloud is reaching for her!" Juno yelled.

"I'll get her!" Vesta snapped and started forward.

"No, Vesta!" Usa shouted. "If you get in trouble, Pallas isn't going to be able to pull both of you out!"

Vesta wanted to ignore the order, but chose finally to obey. Ceres was nearly unconscious now and dead weight in Pallas's telekinetic hands. Then Juno got an idea.

"Aqua Initiation!" Juno shouted and pointed toward the center of the cloud.

The ground rumbled slightly beneath it, and then a giant water spout burst up through the cloud. It caught Ceres where she sat suspended in mid-air, then lifted her up into the sky. Once she was at a high enough angle, Pallas converted her telekinetic path into a slide, allowing gravity to slide Ceres out of danger and back to them. The further Ceres got from the black cloud, which was now receding back to the grove of trees, the stronger she became.

"Are you all right, Ceres?" Pallas demanded fearfully. Juno and Vesta supported Ceres on either side until she could get her wings under her.

"I don't know," Ceres replied with a quaver in her voice. "Can horses puke?"

"What happened?" Usa inquired.

"The closer I got to that cloud," Ceres panted, "the more it seemed like the life was draining out of me. I got all weak and dizzy all of a sudden."

"That must be what happened to the trees," Juno concluded. "That cloud must suck out all of the life from whatever gets close to it. And there's some sort of intelligence to it, because it was reaching for Ceres."

"Do you suppose that's what's affecting the plant life?" Saturn wondered openly.

"Ceres, if you're still too weak to fly, we can land," Usa told her.

"Can we?" Ceres replied hopefully. "I don't want to be a burden or slow us down, but I still feel a little woozy."

Following Usa's signal, the group landed. Saturn immediately came up to Ceres and applied her healing energy. While they waited for Ceres to recover, Pegasus noticed a herd of unicorns approaching. The group was mostly female, but was led by a striking deep brown male. He stood hands above the rest of the herd and had a thick, velvety black mane, a long black tail and black tufts of hair around each ankle above his hooves. A white horn veined in light blue grew majestically out of his forehead and the light of day gleamed off of his skin, highlighting graceful muscles.

"Damn," they heard Vesta whisper softly. She was impressed.

"Forgive our intrusion," the unicorn ventured, his words diplomacy dipped in honey. He looked directly into Usa's red eyes. "Would you possibly be Princess Usagi?"

"You know me?" Usa asked as Pegasus eyed the unicorn warily and the other senshi looked him over with emotions ranging from suspicion to admiration.

"It is gratifying to at last meet you, Princess," the unicorn said and bowed to her. "I am known as Nerites." He paused, then continued with some reluctance. "Please accept my apologies, Princess. I fear I am the one responsible for your distress on your world."

"How so?" Pegasus asked.

"You are Helios?" Nerites inquired. Pegasus nodded. "You honor us with your presence, Dream Lord. Yes, it is I who attempted to contact Princess Usagi, for we of Helicon are in desperate need of her power as Sailor Moon. Unfortunately, the magics I used to attempt to communicate through the dimensions were more powerful than I was able to control. Rather than transmit my plea, they transformed her into - - one of us." Quickly he turned back to Usa. "I assure you, Princess, that when you return to your world, the spell will fade and you will return to your natural form."

"So what about us?" Ceres demanded.

"Your transformation is the result of the magic of this world," Nerites explained. "All who come to Helicon exist either in equine form or in wolf form while on Helicon. Once you return to your world, you will return to your natural form as well."

"Pallas?" Usa thought, knowing that Sailor Pallas would detect the thought and report her findings telepathically.

"Mister Nerites-Sir isn't fibbing, Princess," Pallas thought back.

"Do I now have your trust, Princess?" Nerites asked. Usa looked at him with surprise. "Telepathy is a gift all on Helicon possess. Forgive me for listening in, but I really couldn't help it."

"Forgive me for being suspicious," Usa replied in a controlled manner.

"For one as lovely as you are, I could do no less," Nerites nodded.

"And why did you summon the Princess?" Pegasus interjected. "Does it have anything to do with the black cloud of mist we encountered on the way here?"

"It has everything to do with that 'mist', as you termed it," Nerites answered, keeping his gaze locked on Usa the entire time. "They call themselves the Skoteinos."

"Then they are intelligent?" Juno interjected.

"They have some intellect," Nerites said, "though hardly above the lowly rodents who exist upon Helicon. They came to this world one day and began feeding on everything around them: Plants, animals, the very elements in the soil and water themselves. They consume anything and everything and leave nothing in return save barren dessication."

"Where did they come from?" Usa asked.

"From whatever world they previously consumed," Nerites replied with a hint of bitterness. "The name means nothing to me and I doubt would to you. And it is the past regardless and can no longer be helped."

"They too strong for you to take on?" Vesta inquired, a question that almost seemed like a challenge.

"Yes," Nerites answered and the bitterness increased. "We have tried to fight them. We have tried to reason with them, to bargain with them. They are intractable. They are here and will not leave willingly." Nerites stepped closer until his nose was nearly against Usa's. "None are safe on this world, for the Skoteinos attack anything that comes near them. Worse, these creatures suck the very life out of the land. The vegetation withers more each day. My kind have less and less to eat. I fear starvation will soon come. And there is less to eat for the smaller animals who act as prey for the wolves. Without their natural food source, the wolves have become more desperate. Where before they would leave us in peace in favor of easier prey, now they have begun attacking the equines rather than go hungry."

Nerites took a moment to compose himself.

"Were it just me, I would gladly die a warrior's death fighting these creatures rather than stand by and be slowly sucked dry by them," he continued. "But I must consider my entire race. We are on the path to extinction, as are the wolves and the lesser animals of this world. Using the magic at my disposal, I searched for assistance until I learned of you. Please, Princess, help my race. Help my world against these things. On behalf of life itself, and on behalf of the race which sired the Dream Guardian, I humbly ask for your help."

"Of course we'll try to help, Nerites," Usa replied. "I certainly don't want to see anyone hurt, and especially the distant relatives of my Helios."

"Oh, thank you, Princess!" Nerites exclaimed. The unicorn pressed his nose up against hers and ran it along the side of her neck.

That's when Pegasus stepped in, forcing himself between Nerites and Usa. Usa backed up several paces, giving Pegasus room to face the brown unicorn.

"Is there a place where we can rest and plan strategy, Nerites?" Pegasus asked with measured politeness.

"Up upon that hill," Nerites gestured with his horn, pointing to a tree-lined hill just south of them. "The trees and grass are unaffected by the blight and it provides an observation point to survey the areas to the west where the Skoteinos currently reside. Water can be had from a pond on the other side." Bending his neck around Pegasus, Nerites looked at Usa again. "If there is anything you need, Princess, you need only tell me. We are all at your disposal."

With that, Nerites returned to his herd. Pegasus turned to Usa, deferring to her for a decision on their next move.

"We going after them?" Vesta asked.

"Not without knowing more about them, first," Usa replied. She was looking at the cloud in the midst of the grove of trees that had almost gotten Ceres. Little had changed. "These Skoteinos don't seem to consume very quickly. So we've got time to gather information and come up with a plan."

Usa adjourned to the top of the hill for a better view of the terrain. The others dutifully fell in behind her.

"Princess," Pallas spoke up as the band of warriors mounted the hill. "Pallas is hungry."

"So what do horses eat?" Juno wondered.

"If you don't feel like grass or leaves, maybe some of these trees are fruit trees," Vesta informed them.

"Wonderful," muttered Ceres. "I so love being a horse."

"Don't get picky," Vesta advised her. "If we're going into battle, you're going to need to keep your strength up."

But as they mounted the hill, Pegasus noticed that Usa was glancing back at the foot of the hill, and specifically at the deep brown form of Nerites.

Continued in Chapter 5


	5. The Olive Branch

A View From The Other Side  
Chapter 5: "The Olive Branch"  
A Neo-Sailor Moon fanfic

By Bill K.

* * *

Sailor Pallas, Sailor Ceres and Sailor Vesta, all still in horse forms, ascended to the top of the hill and edged over to Sailor Juno. Over on the other side of the summit, under a tree that still had some shade despite being lunched upon by some of the denizens of Helicon, Usa stood with Pegasus and Sailor Saturn. The Princess was studying the grove where the black cloud was feeding. They could see she was discussing the situation with Pegasus and Saturn, but none of them could hear what was being said.

"They still at it?" Vesta asked Juno. Juno nodded. "Boy, when her highness focuses on something, she just don't let go."

"She's trying to solve the problem the best way she can," Juno replied. "It would be nice to know if anything affected those clouds. I know when I shot that water spout through them, it didn't seem to do anything to them. Didn't even dissipate them. And you wouldn't think they'd be vulnerable to physical attacks, being gaseous and all."

"Juno, we had some very delicious apples down by the pond," Pallas chirped. "She would have brought you some, but she doesn't have any hands. Do you want Pallas to show you?"

"No, I had some grass here," Juno told her.

"Ewww," scowled Ceres.

"It's not something I'd go out of my way to eat, but it's filling," Juno answered. "Or were you objecting on ethical grounds."

"Both," Ceres huffed. "Trees make fruit to be eaten. But you cut down those blades in the prime of their lives."

"What other use does grass have besides being a meal?" argued Vesta.

"What other use does a rodent have besides being a meal?" Ceres shot back.

"Exactly," Vesta grumped. "It's the way nature was set up, so stop being contrary."

"I think she got you, Ceres," chuckled Juno.

"This whole mission has me off my game," Ceres grumbled.

"Anybody notice where that Nerites went?" Vesta inquired.

"Vesta likes him," giggled Pallas.

"Bet you didn't have to read her mind to know that, huh Pallas?" Juno needled. Pallas cackled with glee.

"Yeah, the drool was enough," sniffed Ceres.

"Tell me you didn't notice how tall and lean he is," Vesta maintained. "Those shoulder muscles, and that strong confidence of his?"

"He's a unicorn," Ceres said sourly. "They're not exactly my type."

"No, skinny artists are your type," Vesta sneered.

"Guess you can appreciate animal forms better than we can, Vesta," Juno observed. "To me, he's just another horse with a horn in his forehead." She glanced sideways. "Hey, The Princess is gesturing for us."

While the Asteroids had been discussing things, Usa was watching the valley to the west of the hill. From her vantage point, she was able to see several more areas in the distance with black cloud-like beings feeding. Around them, the grass and foliage was noticeably brown and withered. There was even the desiccated corpse of a wolf near one of the clouds, the remains dried and almost mummified in appearance. On either side of the Princess, Pegasus and Saturn watched with her and waited for her to speak.

"Helios," Usa said finally, "do you know anything about these creatures?"

"Only what Nerites has described," Pegasus answered. "Their minds are unfamiliar to me, which tells me only that they are creatures who do not dream. I am familiar with the horror they induce in the population of this world through the dreams of those beings, though."

"Saturn, what do you make of it?" Usa asked.

"It doesn't make sense," Saturn replied. "Any creature with enough brain capacity to form intelligent thought, even on a rudimentary basis, should have the capacity to dream." The dark horse thought a moment, then seemed to come up with an inspiration. "Unless it's some sort of hive-mind intelligence. It forms the ability to think through the interaction of particulate brains within the hive-mind."

"Interesting," mumbled Usa. "Wish I had my computer station with me. Saturn, do you think there's some way to communicate with it?"

"Nerites said he tried negotiating with it," Saturn recalled. "Since I can't imagine it has any means of physically speaking, Nerites must have communicated telepathically."

"Let's try it," Usa nodded. She looked around. "Where's Pallas? Oh, there she is." The Princess nodded the Asteroid Senshi over.

"You plan to attempt to negotiate with these beings?" Pegasus asked.

"Anything I can do to avoid a confrontation, I have to try first," Usa replied. "It's safer for everyone that way."

"Nerites already attempted to negotiate a settlement with them," Pegasus reminded her.

"Well, we don't know how skilled a negotiator Nerites is, do we?" suggested Usa.

"His words seem slick and honied enough," Pegasus said disdainfully. "Perhaps it is a skill he possesses only with females."

Usa glanced at Pegasus, but before she could say anything the others approached.

"What's the plan, Princess?" Juno asked.

"I want to try communicating with these beings," Usa informed them. "Find out why they're here and what might convince them to leave."

"How about a proton warhead," Vesta suggested.

"I'm not going to be the aggressor here, Vesta," Usa replied. "Mom would try to reach common ground with them and it's a worthy strategy. They might not even realize they're harming others. You go in as an enemy, you make an enemy. You go in as a friend and there's a chance you make a friend."

"Your call," Vesta said. "We'll have your back."

"Actually, I only want Pallas to accompany me," Usa told them. "I need Pallas because the only way to communicate with them may be telepathically."

"Maiden," Pegasus spoke up anxiously, "given their history, this is a potentially hazardous course of action."

"Yes, Princess, we're supposed to be guarding you," Juno echoed.

"Too many of us might seem like a show of force," reasoned Usa. "I don't want to chance provoking anything." She looked at Pallas. "Think you can transfer what I think to them, Pallas?"

Pallas thought for a moment. The idea was clearly not one she welcomed.

"Pallas will try, Princess," Pallas said reluctantly. "But she has to say that the mean old clouds don't make her feel very good."

"Understood," Usa nodded. She turned to head down the hill.

"Maiden!" Pegasus spoke up. She turned back to him. "At least allow us to merge so you may have your abilities as Sailor Moon at your disposal - - should you need them."

Usa considered it. "OK, Helios. I guess that makes sense. Crisis Make Up!"

Pegasus shimmered and merged with Usa as her equine form transformed into an equine equivalent of Sailor Moon. Outwardly she remained the same, with one difference.

"Princess!" gasped Pallas. "You're all sparkly! And you have a horn in your head!"

"I am?" Sailor Moon asked. Though she was still a winged white horse with pink mane and tail, her mane and tail seemed longer and fuller. And there were subtle sparks of pink, like momentarily blips of light in the darkness, all around her. "I guess I am." She smirked devilishly. "I always feel sparkly when I merge with Helios, though."

"Honestly, you are so shameless," Saturn said, shaking her head in good-natured humor.

With Pallas by her side, Sailor Moon galloped up to the grove where the dark cloud creature was feeding. From the hill, the Senshi watched anxiously, Saturn and Vesta most of all. When they got within twenty feet of the creature, the pair stopped. Sailor Moon could feel an uneasiness fall over her body that she couldn't explain. There was the usual adrenalin rush she felt whenever she went into battle as Sailor Moon, or whenever she confronted something new and unknown. But this feeling was as if her body was warning her not to venture any farther. She glanced behind her and found Pallas several paces behind her, shying timidly from the creature.

"Pallas?" Sailor Moon said.

"Pallas is sorry, Princess," Pallas replied. "Pallas doesn't like the way the Bad Cloud makes her feel. The Bad Cloud makes her feel the way Granny Zirconia made her feel when Granny Zirconia was being mean to Pallas."

"It's OK, Pallas. I feel it, too," Sailor Moon assured her. "Try to make contact."

"Pallas will try," Pallas said with little enthusiasm.

Her head lowered a little and Pallas closed her eyes. Sailor Moon swung her head back and watched the cloud creature for any reaction. It was apparent that the cloud had grown since their last encounter. The entire grove was engulfed now, except for a single limb that extended out. The limb was dry and brittle, the bark fallen away and the wood's color ashen. For ten feet surrounding the cloud all the grass had withered.

Then there was a sudden onrush of sensation, like static in her brain. Though she heard no noise, Sailor Moon flinched back like she was being subjected to a harsh sound. With difficulty she peered out of a clenched eye at the cloud creature.

"Steady, Maiden," she heard Helios say in her mind. "They are the thoughts of the creature. Sailor Pallas, I am sending you a means to translate these thoughts into your own language."

After a moment, the static stopped. Sailor Moon turned full face to the creature and waited for Pallas to establish the telepathic connection again.

"Creature," Sailor Moon heard in her mind. "What creature are you?"

Sailor Moon glanced back at Pallas. Pallas nodded to her.

"I am called Sailor Moon," Sailor Moon thought. "I wish to communicate with you."

"You communicate with us now," the cloud creature responded. "You are like the other, and yet you are different. Why? The other creature with you is like the other. Why are you different?"

"I," Sailor Moon puzzled, "just am."

"Much in you," the cloud creature thought. "More than the others. Much feeding."

The cloud creature surged several paces toward Sailor Moon. Quickly she and Pallas gave ground. At a certain point, the cloud creature stopped, then receded back to the grove.

"That's why I wanted to communicate with you," Sailor Moon thought. "You're destroying the environment of this world."

"We feed," the cloud creature replied through thought. "It is what we do."

"But others live here," Sailor Moon argued. "You're destroying the world they live in. You're destroying them."

"They are food," the cloud creature answered. "We feed upon them. Of what matter is it if we destroy them?"

"And what will you feed upon if you destroy everything?" countered Sailor Moon.

The cloud seemed to swirl a little.

"When this place is consumed, we will move on," it answered. "When the last place was consumed and there was nothing left, we came here. We feed. It is what we do. To not feed is to cease."

"But everything else will cease!" Sailor Moon fumed.

"Then we will move on," replied the creature. "We must continue. Nothing else matters. We must continue."

"Princess," Sailor Moon heard Pallas moan. She turned and found Pallas standing on unsteady legs. "Pallas doesn't feel good."

"Is it draining you, Pallas?" Sailor Moon asked. "OK, back away! We need to get to a safe distance!"

As she eased up next to Pallas to try to herd the horse away, Sailor Moon glanced back at the cloud creature. The cloud had surged again and had completely engulfed the branch that was visible earlier. Another glance told her that part of the creature was trying to flank them.

Then Pallas stumbled and slid to the ground on her side. She made several uncoordinated efforts to rise, but lacked the energy. Her heart pounding, Sailor Moon looked back at the cloud creature. It was even closer, moving fast enough to be detectable.

"Moon Gorgeous Meditation!" Sailor Moon called out. She sensed her power was somewhere, but without the Moon Kaleidoscope she didn't know how she would be able to focus it. This was as good a time as any to find out, though, because Sailor Pallas wasn't getting up and she had no way to lift her.

From above her eyes, her horn began to glow pink. Suddenly a beam of pink energy shot into the cloud. All light from the beam was swallowed up into the cloud. But the cloud became dormant. It even receded just a little.

"Give us more," she felt the creature think. "So good. Give us more."

The mists began to swirl some. Sailor Moon peered in. She wasn't certain if she had affected its hive mind, influenced it with her pink energy, or merely fed it.

Then the thunderous sound of hooves came in from her right. Nerites suddenly appeared in her field of vision, his powerful shoulders and hind quarters pressing against her and herding her away, even as he lowered his horn to defend against an attack.

"What are you doing?" shouted Sailor Moon.

"You're too close, Princess!" Nerites roared as his bigger body continued to force her back. "You're taking too great a risk!"

"I was communicating with it!" Sailor Moon snapped.

"It was almost upon you!" Nerites argued.

No matter how she tried to get around him, Nerites continued to herd her back. Looking back at the cloud creature, Sailor Moon could see the creature had surged again and was nearly at the spot she had been in.

And Sailor Pallas was still on that spot.

"Pallas!" Sailor Moon shouted urgently.

But Pallas lay limp on the ground. Unable to get around Nerites, Sailor Moon extended her wings and with a push was aloft and over him. Nerites stopped and looked on with concern. She was about to make a desperate dive toward Pallas. She still had no way to pick Pallas up, but she wasn't about to abandon her.

Then a huge shadow momentarily blotted out the sun. Sailor Moon looked up and saw a huge prehistoric Pterodactyl swooping in on Pallas and the cloud creature. It had to be Vesta. There was no other explanation. Sailor Moon glided in closer as the Pterodactyl shot in, grasped Pallas in its feet and took to the air again. As Vesta sought height, the cloud lunged for her, extending up as it had earlier for Ceres.

"Moon Gorgeous Meditation!" Sailor Moon shouted, pink energy shooting into the cloud creature in an effort to cover Vesta's retreat. As before, the cloud receded with the introduction of her pink energy. Its energy seemed to quiet. Satisfied that Vesta's retreat was safe, Sailor Moon turned and flew off after her.

Vesta's Pterodactyl form had sent the herd of unicorns at the base of the hill fleeing. It was of little concern to her. The giant flying dinosaur landed atop the hill and gently set Pallas down, then transformed into Vesta's human form. Vesta knelt down next to Pallas and stroked her neck.

"Pallas?" she exclaimed. "Hang in there! How do you feel?"

"Pallas is better now, Vesta," Pallas said. With some effort, she rolled up, tucking her legs under her. "Thank you."

"Don't scare me like that!" Vesta choked out.

"Pallas is sorry," Pallas replied, her gratitude coloring every syllable. Some feet away, Sailor Moon landed.

"Wait a minute! How are you in your human form?" Ceres gasped.

"Because I've got hands in this form!" snarled Vesta.

"Ceres, Vesta's power is the ability to transform into any animal form," Juno reasoned. "I guess in this world a human form counts."

Ceres only made a face.

Sailor Moon turned when she heard the beat of hooves up the side of the hill. She saw Nerites hurriedly mounting the hill. When he achieved the summit, he immediately went to her.

"What were you doing?" Sailor Moon demanded.

"You were too close, Princess," Nerites maintained. "You were at risk!"

"That IS why I'm here," Sailor Moon countered. Nerites moved closer to her.

"It was a mistake," he sighed, looking down. "I never should have called you here. Never should have exposed you to the danger."

"I'm used to danger, Nerites."

"No," Nerites said sharply, looking directly at her. "If something were to happen - - if you were to come to harm . . ."

He closed his eyes and turned away.

"Nerites . . ." Sailor Moon began.

"Perhaps you should go," Nerites suggested. "Though it would grieve me to see you return to your world, better that than to see you fall prey to these creatures."

Sailor Moon walked over and nuzzled his neck with her nose.

"Nerites," Sailor Moon said. "I think it's very flattering that you want to protect me. But we have to protect this world and all of the life on it, and that's more important that one single life, whether it's mine or yours."

Nerites looked at her. He softened.

"You are a remarkable spirit, Princess," he said. "I could very easily grow accustom to basking in your glow for the rest of my days."

And inside of Sailor Moon, Helios glared.

Continued in Chapter 6


	6. First Assault

A View From The Other Side  
Chapter 6: "First Assault"  
A Neo-Sailor Moon fanfic

By Bill K.

Night had come to Helicon. The herd of unicorn that frequented the foot of the hill and the nearby pond had returned and were grazing and bedding down, all with a wary eye toward the mist creatures spotted at various places in the distance. Atop the hill, the Asteroid senshi were beginning to turn in. Pallas was already asleep while Vesta stood watchfully over her, back in her equine form. Ceres was about to turn in. Juno glanced over at Sailor Moon. The horse still paced along the edge of the hill's slope, staring out at the creatures, while Saturn stood by.

"Princess, you're going to wear a trail in the grass," Juno muttered. Then she turned to join the others.

"I don't know, Saturn," sighed Sailor Moon. "How do you affect something that can shape itself around anything we throw at it?"

"Maybe Juno's torrential rain attack could disperse it," Saturn suggested. "We won't know until we try."

"Maybe it could," Sailor Moon conceded. "But what impact would that much water that soon have on the surrounding environment? Would it dilute the hive-mind that controls those clouds or just disperse it and poison more of the surroundings? And if we do disperse it, will it just reform? Or would that be killing it?"

"Waiting and doing nothing isn't going to help," Saturn maintained.

"It's letting me see how they react to darkness," Sailor Moon replied. "So far I haven't detected any change in them. Of course it isn't very easy to see. What do you think, Helios?"

There was no response.

"Helios?" Sailor Moon thought internally.

"Forgive me, Maiden," Helios replied at last. "What was your question?"

"You OK?"

"I was," Helios thought back to her, "distracted by other things. You have my full attention now."

Filing the response away, Sailor Moon repeated, "Do you think the night has affected the mist creatures?"

"From here, I can see no change."

"So maybe we should get closer," Sailor Moon said out loud. Spreading her wings, she pushed off of the hill and up into the air.

"Sailor Moon, be careful!" Saturn called after her, the worry unconcealed in her voice.

Against the night sky, Sailor Moon's white and pink form stood out like a beacon. At the suggestion of Helios, she sought extra elevation to stay well out of range of the creatures on the ground.

"Wish I had a light of some sort," fussed Sailor Moon. "Wait a minute! I do! I keep forgetting my Luna-P locket is around my neck!" She arced around. "Luna-P Transform! Become a powerful miniature spotlight!"

The locket, dangling just below her chin, transformed as bidden. From the device, a powerful beam of light lanced down and hit the ground. A wolf was momentarily illuminated, perilously close to the mist creature. It looked up at Sailor Moon, a dead rodent dangling from its mouth, then dived into the concealing shadows. Moving the beam to the mist creature, Sailor Moon could see it was no longer in the grove where it had been. Left behind was a barren patch of dead and desiccated trees, the wood old-looking and gray, the ground around it bereft of any sign of life. Tracking to the west, Sailor Moon's beam picked up the mist creature. It was moving to the west, undulating rather than actually moving its mass in the general direction. To her judgment, the mass was no bigger than it had been. Behind it, a trail of wilted grass led to the desiccated grove.

"Where do you suppose it's going?" Sailor Moon wondered to the being she shared a body with. "Moving on to a new food source, maybe?"

"A logical assumption, Maiden," Helios responded. "Although it is possible it is moving to link up with another of the creatures."

"Why?"

"That I do not know. Have you learned enough, Maiden?"

"No," Sailor Moon replied with disappointment, "but I don't think I'm going to learn anything else now."

"Then perhaps we should return," suggested Helios.

To Saturn's immediate relief, Sailor Moon landed atop the hill. Immediately Pegasus separated from Sailor Moon, leaving Usa standing there.

"Helios?" she questioned.

"You are tired, Maiden, though I know you will deny it," Pegasus replied. "Sleep. There is nothing more that can be done tonight. I will stand watch."

"But Helios!" Usa insisted.

"Usa, we're all tired," Saturn told her. "Helios is right. Get some rest."

Usa sighed in frustration. "All right." She reached over and nuzzled noses with Pegasus. "Give me a pleasant dream, Helios. You know the one."

"As you wish, Maiden," Pegasus chuckled.

As Usa and Saturn moved off to sleep, Pegasus stood at the crest of the hill and surveyed the valley surrounding it. For the longest time he watched the mist creatures in the valley. And then he turned and looked down on the herd of unicorn at the foot of the hill, specifically Nerites.

And he watched Nerites for the longest time.

At the foot of the hill, Nerites stood with another unicorn. It was a female, smaller than he was, with chestnut skin and mane. The female stood for the longest time motionless with her eyes closed. Nerites would watch her intently. Several of the other members of the herd, all females, would glance at them from time to time. They all sought Nerites' attention, but knew better than to try to attract him when he was absorbed with Cassandra.

"You see nothing," Nerites said finally. It was not a question, for he had read her thoughts.

"I am sorry, Lord Nerites," Cassandra replied with a weary tone. "The mists of the future are too dense. My vision cannot penetrate them."

"Are you certain the mists you see are not the creatures?"

"I can differentiate the two," Cassandra said with some annoyance. "Events are no longer clear. This Princess Usagi and her group have clouded the future and made it no longer clear to see. Do not let your fervor to know the truth claim your manners."

"Forgive my tone," Nerites said sweetly. He came up and nuzzled his nose along her neck. Cassandra closed her eyes and shuddered out a breath.

"Were I not so forgiving already," Cassandra exhaled, her speech heavy with ardor, "I would find a way to quit you."

"So," said Pegasus, slowly descending the hill from atop it, "you have a seer among you." He nodded to her as Nerites stood between them. "I am known as Helios."

"You may call me Cassandra, Dream Guardian," she answered neutrally.

"Is she how you managed to learn of Princess Usagi?" Pegasus asked Nerites. "Your telepathy is impressive, though I doubt it strong enough to pierce the mystical dimensions."

"It can be done," Nerites said off-hand. "Your father was one who did so, according to the legends. How is he, by the way?"

"Dead," Pegasus replied stonily. Cassandra reacted with surprise, though Nerites did not. "Slain by a sorceress for the youth-giving properties of his blood."

"My condolences," Nerites replied.

"Cassandra," Pegasus began, brushing off Nerites' gesture, "did you run across knowledge of Princess Usagi by accident or were you searching for a means to combat the mist creatures?"

"Both, I suppose," Cassandra said. "Nothing we could do stopped them. Nothing the wolves could do stopped them, either. At the behest of Lord Nerites, I searched the future to see if a way could be found to destroy them - - drive them off if nothing else. It was then I saw Princess Usagi, here in her current form, battling on our behalf. Lord Nerites saw it, too . . ."

"I saw it because I see everything Cassandra sees," Nerites interrupted, continuing the story. "Invasive, perhaps, but necessary in this case. Princess Usagi was - - hope. Hope for us all. She was a way to turn back this rising tide of destruction and death. I called to her, through Cassandra's power, to beg her to help us." He turned introspective. "Perhaps I shouldn't have. To put her at risk this way . . ."

"Nevertheless, we are here," Pegasus cut him off. "Is there anything else we should know about these creatures?"

"You know what we know, Dream Guardian," Cassandra said. "I, too, do not wish to see Princess Usagi and her group at risk. But if anyone can solve this problem for us and save our world, it is her."

"On that we are agreed, Cassandra," Pegasus nodded. "Should you learn anything more, please tell us. No matter how insignificant, it may hold the key to turning this tide."

"I will tell you immediately, Helios," Nerites smiled. Pegasus looked at him cooly.

"I would prefer another messenger," Pegasus replied slowly.

"Have I offended you, Dream Guardian?" Nerites asked. He couldn't, or didn't, conceal the cocky tone to his voice.

"You have a fine harem in this herd, Nerites," Pegasus began. "Many sturdy, attractive females, Cassandra here being a shining example of that." Cassandra nodded passively. "One would think they would be enough."

"Meaning?" Nerites asked glibly.

"You wish me to be blunt? Fine," Pegasus said. "Do not seek to add the Princess Usagi to this harem. She is already committed."

"To you?"

Pegasus didn't reply. But his head lowered slightly, bringing his crystal horn down to a more menacing angle.

"Perhaps I should ask the Princess herself," Nerites replied, almost in a mocking tone, "to see if she shares your views."

"I would think you have more pressing matters tending to your own herd. I," Pegasus replied in a low voice, "will see to the Princess."

Pegasus turned and headed back up the hill. Nerites watched him as he left, a humorous light dancing in his eyes.

"Yes, Cassandra," he chuckled, "I think I have offended him." Cassandra betrayed no emotion in response.

* * *

"I will NEVER get used to this!" Ceres spat as she tried again to roll over onto her forelegs and pry herself to her feet. The morning sun was rising in the east and the sense of helpless doom that had gripped Helicon yesterday didn't seem so pervasive now.

"That's what you get for sleeping laying down," snorted Vesta. She ambled over and gave Ceres' back hips a shove with her nose.

"Well how am I supposed to sleep? Standing up?" snapped Ceres.

"Yeah! That's the way equines sleep, unless they're colts! Don't you know anything?" Vesta snapped back.

"I know you're obnoxious when you pretend to be smart," scowled Ceres.

"Here, Ceres, let Pallas help you!" Pallas chirped, sunny as usual in the morning. "Beautiful Incantation!"

Ceres felt herself levitating and, in a moment of panic, began flailing her legs and wings around. When she realized that Pallas was using her telekinesis to levitate her, Ceres quieted. Gently the invisible hands that held her deposited her on all four hooves, then released her.

"Pallas is much better at holding you now that she's used to your weight," Pallas proclaimed proudly. "Come on with us to the pond! We're going to eat apples!"

"What about Usa and Saturn?" Ceres asked, glancing over to where the others were.

"They're still sleeping," Juno informed her as Ceres saw for herself. "And there doesn't seem to be anything new on the Skoteinos, so I think we've got time to grab some breakfast."

Journeying down the side of the hill to the pond below, the Asteroids found several unicorns and a couple of flying horses grazing. They received a cursory glance from the grazing equines, judging them to see if they were a potential threat. Satisfied they had nothing to fear, the others went back to grazing - - all except one young winged male. He came over and pressed up against Ceres.

"You're a fine young mare," he said amorously. "Are you with the Dream Guardian's herd?"

"Yes," Ceres replied dismissively, for being hit on was an all-to-familiar situation for her. She tried to move away, but the winged stallion moved with her.

"A proper male wouldn't let such a fine mare wander away," he told her, his body aggressively pressing against her.

"I'm really not interested," Ceres said as diplomatically as she could manage. Achieving the right balance of rejection without sounding too mean or shrill was a skill she had plenty of opportunity to practice.

She began to move away again. That's when the young stallion tried to mount her. Angrily, Ceres spun away, her wings splaying and her nostrils flared.

"WHAT DID I JUST SAY?" Ceres snapped. Some guys just didn't respond to diplomacy.

"I really wasn't listening," the stallion said confidently and moved in again.

"Then listen to this!" snarled Ceres. "Floral Stimulation!"

Immediately the grass around the stallion began to grow at an absurd speed, twisting together as it grew. Before he could react, the young stallion was encircled by the twisting grasses and held firmly in place. He whinnied in alarm and tried to pull away, but the twisted mesh of the grass held him firm. Ceres turned and, with a flip of her magenta tail, disdainfully walked away. Several of the winged females stared at her in amazement. Then Pallas ran up to the struggling male.

"Bad horsie!" she spat, then cantered after Ceres.

"Thanks for the help," Ceres snorted sarcastically when she arrived at the tree Juno and Vesta were feeding from.

"I wanted to see how you'd get out of it," Vesta smirked.

"Some guys just won't take 'no' for an answer until you get violent," sighed Ceres.

"You going to leave him like that?" Juno asked wryly.

"Oh, I told the grass to let him go," Ceres replied disinterestedly, "in a couple of hours." She spread her wings and pushed off the ground, gaining just enough altitude to pluck an apple from a high branch. The others returned to grazing.

Vesta stopped suddenly. She looked to one side. Juno stopped eating and looked at Vesta, then noticed several of the other equines had stopped as well.

"What's up?" Juno asked Vesta. Vesta continued to stare.

Ceres and Pallas stopped eating and looked at them.

"Vesta?" Juno prodded.

"Something's not right," Vesta murmured. Her crimson tail twitched slightly.

"What's not right?" Ceres asked.

"I don't know. I can't say," Vesta replied. "I've just got that feeling."

In response, two winged horses took to the air.

"The bad cloud is back," Pallas said, her voice low and haunted.

Spooked, the unicorns began to move to the other side of the hill. The male snared by Ceres struggled frantically to get free. Finally Ceres released him and he took to the air. Ceres looked to Juno.

"Let's get a look from up top," Juno suggested. Vesta nodded and headed up the hill, with Pallas right behind her. Juno and Ceres cast a final look across the pasture and saw it. A black mist was rising from the grasses, withering the plants as it coalesced.

Reaching the summit, the Asteroids turned and looked down on the pasture. One of the cloud creatures was indeed undulating across the grass field, leaving a trail of brown withered grass in its wake. The cloud seemed to throb as it moved across the green field, slithering along slowly.

"It's headed for the pond," Vesta judged. "The water and the grove of trees around it.

"But if the bad cloud comes and turns all the trees and grass gray, what will the horsies eat for breakfast?" Pallas exclaimed.

"Exactly," Ceres nodded.

"Princess! Saturn! Helios!" Juno called, summoning their fellow senshi. Rousing, Usa and Saturn came over along with Pegasus and joined the Asteroids on the south side of the hill. "There's another Skoteinos, down there! It's headed for the apple orchard and the pond!"

Usa surveyed things for only a moment, then turned to Pegasus.

"Helios?" she asked. He nodded. "Crisis Make Up!" she shouted and the pair merged into the equine Sailor Moon.

But before she could react, Sailor Moon and everyone else noticed Sailor Saturn soar above them, her glaive held between her teeth. The black winged horse arced over the apple orchard and came to ground yards before the black, encompassing mist.

"What the Hell is she doing?" cried Sailor Moon. "Saturn!"

Continued in Chapter 7


	7. Survival Of The Fittest

A View From The Other Side  
Chapter 7: "Survival Of The Fittest"  
A Neo-Sailor Moon fanfic

By Bill K.

* * *

"SATURN!" Sailor Moon screamed.

Saturn paid the call no heed. Over the orchard and pond she soared, glaive between her teeth, arcing toward the advancing mist creature. The winged senshi landed softly on her hooves just ten feet from the creature. The mists expanded toward her, reaching out to encompass Saturn and drain her dry.

Sailor Moon was in the air in an instant, flying toward her friend and fellow senshi with all the speed she could muster. This got Vesta and Juno into the air in pursuit. That brought Ceres and Pallas into the sky. And it brought Nerites, flanked by some of his herd of unicorns, back from where they had fled.

"Azhleal'sh schlumbah!" Saturn yelled out as best she could, the glaive between her teeth like a bit.

Twisting her neck, she brought the blade of the glaive down to the ground. The Skoteinos reared up, its mist body actually curling around a circle radiating out from the glaive. All movement ceased from the creature. It hovered mere feet from Saturn, but made no move toward her. Tense moments passed as Saturn continued to leech energy out of the creature. Sailor Moon landed near Saturn while the others hovered overhead, ready to assist their friend should the creature make a renewed effort for her.

Then they noticed the ground.

"It's melting!" Pallas exclaimed.

"Actually that's pretty accurate," Sailor Moon observed. "By leeching energy from the creature, Saturn is robbing the creature's molecular structure of kinetic heat energy, reducing the vibration of its molecules and converting it from a gaseous state to a liquid state. It's simple science!"

"Pallas, is it still thinking for itself?" Juno asked suddenly.

Pallas concentrated. "It's trying," she reported. "But the bad cloud is all jumbled up and can't think straight. It's very confused."

"The conversion is probably affecting the neural connections of the hive-mind," Sailor Moon concluded. "Can you keep this up, Saturn?"

"T'yingh," Saturn mumbled.

"And when it's completely liquid, Juno can just wash it away," Ceres added.

"No," Sailor Moon said suddenly. "I don't want to do that."

"Why not?" Juno asked.

"I don't want to kill it," Sailor Moon turned to her. "It's just surviving the only way it knows how."

"Yeah, by eating everything else!" Vesta barked.

"I know it's a threat," Sailor Moon bristled. "But there has to be a way to save all of the other species on this world without annihilating this one."

"A noble desire, Princess," Nerites said. The unicorn walked up to them, coming boldly close to Sailor Moon. "Your spirit is as beautiful and as inspirational as your form. But circumstances do not always cooperate with noble sentiments."

With that, Saturn pulled her glaive up from the ground and began dispersing the stolen energy into the atmosphere. Sailor Moon glanced at her and saw Saturn was at her limit. A cursory look at the creature revealed only a placid pool of black ooze. The other senshi landed and moved in to back Sailor Moon up.

"The Skoteinos seems defeated," Nerites judged. "And yet, is it truly dead? What if it returns to life, Princess? Will you repeat this process endlessly until you find your utopian solution? I say kill it now, while you can."

"I'm not going to kill it," Sailor Moon argued. "There has to be another way - - another way other than genocide."

"Unfortunately, I am not permitted lofty ideals," Nerites replied. "I must think of the safety of my herd first and foremost. If there is a way for me to kill it, I will kill it."

And a noise overhead caught everyone's attention. A herd of winged horses swooped in and, one after another, skimmed across the pond, beating their wings furiously. The action pushed water up onto the shore and onto the creature. Saturn and Sailor Moon scattered to avoid being drenched. The water splashed onto the liquified creature and, with every splash, diluted and dissipated it more and more. The winged horses repeated the maneuver over and over until the creature was nothing more than a black sludge coating the ground and the grass. Near the end, Pallas flinched back.

"Pallas, what is it?" Vesta asked.

"The bad cloud," Pallas whispered. "It screamed. And now Pallas can't hear it anymore."

And the herd of winged horses flew up into the sky and away to their part of the great pasture.

* * *

The other senshi stood and watched Usa. The beautiful winged white horse trimmed in pink just stared at her reflection in the pond. She'd been that way since Pallas had pronounced the mist creature dead, as far as their understanding of how such a creature could die. Pegasus had tried to console her, but finally gave in to the futility of it. The unicorns stared, wondering why the off-world Princess behaved this way, for compassion for a predator was a foreign concept to them.

And just forty feet from her was a blackened patch of ground that once was alive and sentient.

"It's like she feels sorry for that thing," Vesta gasped in frustration.

"She didn't want to win this way," Saturn replied, her eyes on her friend the entire time. "She wanted to find a way to make everybody happy."

"Just like her mom," Ceres added. She'd heard this song before.

"There wasn't time to make everybody happy," argued Vesta. "That thing was almost on the pond and the orchard. It would have sucked the orchard dry and contaminated the pond, and that would have left a lot of other animals with no food and no water." Vesta stamped her hoof. "That's what survival of the fittest is. Nature is kill or be killed."

"We're supposed to be evolved from mere animal state, Vesta," Saturn replied. "We're supposed to be better than that."

"Or so we tell ourselves," Ceres observed. "But when it comes down to choosing your ideals or living, how many of us would choose living?" Ceres shook herself. "God, I'm agreeing with Vesta!"

Usa continued to stare at her reflection in the pond. The sky above was blue and high, cloudless and bright. That reflected in the pond as well. She didn't notice. She did notice Saturn slowly approach and nudge her with the black horse's nose.

"I'm sorry," Saturn offered.

"For what?" Usa asked softly.

"If I hadn't used my 'Azrael's Slumber' attack," Saturn explained, "those other horses couldn't have washed it away."

Usa shook her head. "It's not your fault, Saturn. You were just trying to protect the watering hole that the unicorns use. It's the only thing we've come up with that has worked. Maybe if I'd been smart enough to think of something. . ."

"Yes, if you could only make the impossible possible," Saturn sighed. Usa looked at her. "You can't know everything. Not even Mizuno-Sensei knows everything, and she's a lot smarter than you and I combined. And only you would expect you to know everything."

Usa was silent a few moments. "My Mom's had a lot of successes in her life, hasn't she?"

"Yeah."

"And yet, whenever I heard her talk about her career, all she'd ever talk about was what she hadn't done," Usa continued. "Her failures always ate at her and her successes were always dumb luck to her." She turned slightly, embarrassed. "I think that's another thing I inherited from her. I don't just see the glass as half-empty; I see the crack in the glass."

Saturn looked at her sympathetically.

"And I chip my teeth trying to drink out of it," Usa added. Then she glanced at her friend. "But I always keep trying to take that drink. I'm stubborn like that. It's just - - sometimes I wish I'd wise up and use a straw."

It was then that the two noticed Nerites approaching. There was a cautious note to the unicorn's expression, but it didn't deter him from coming. Saturn glanced at her friend and found Usa's expression neutral.

"Princess," Nerites began, "it pains me to see you distressed so. What can I do to lift your spirits?"

"Nothing, Nerites," Usa responded. "It's something I have to get over on my own."

"Come now," he persisted. "Surely even one as wondrous and as lovely as you must take a break from being a princess and a warrior. It is no sign of weakness to allow yourself to be comforted by others. Take my offer and let me lift your dark mood."

"Don't you have a herd to watch over?" Usa asked pointedly.

"There is enough of me to go around," Nerites said with a smirk in his voice. "And right now you need comforting more than they do. Or do you hold my earlier sentiments against me?"

"I'm trying not to," Usa replied.

"I pray you succeed in your goal of resolving this situation peacefully. Nothing would make me happier, for my only goal is to be rid of these creatures any way possible. If you find a way that will make your eyes sparkle again, so much the better." He stepped a pace closer. "For I fear I have become addicted to the sparkle in your eyes."

Saturn looked at Usa and goggled. Was she buying this line? Her demeanor seemed to brighten.

And then Pegasus appeared, forcing his way between Usa and Nerites. The unicorn backed up two paces, then stood his ground. Pegasus said nothing, but his baleful glare never left his rival.

"Name the time, Dream Guardian," Nerites said flippantly.

"There are more pressing matters," Pegasus replied. "When we need your assistance, we will summon you."

"It appears I have been dismissed," Nerites joked, peering around Pegasus to Usa. "But I will see that sparkle in your eye again, Princess. This I vow." As Nerites walked away, Pegasus turned to go in the opposite direction. But Usa blocked him.

"Helios?" she inquired, confused and slightly irritated. "What was that all about?"

Pegasus looked at her, surprised by the irritation in her voice. His glance fell to the ground.

"He is," the Dream Guardian began, reigning in his temper, "too familiar for my tastes."

"Are you jealous?" Usa asked incredulously. "Helios, I love you. That hasn't changed. Nerites has a pretty way with words, but believe me a few pretty words aren't going to change the way I feel about you."

Pegasus looked her in the eye. "I do not doubt that, Maiden," he responded. "YOUR feelings have never been in question for me. Rather, it is HIS feelings that is the irritant."

Usa still didn't seem to comprehend.

"I do not doubt your feelings, Maiden. HE doubts your feelings. He thinks he can woo you to his side," Pegasus continued. "The thought insults me. Why? Perhaps it is an instinct, a race memory, but something urges me to - - protect what I have from usurpers. I feel the need to convince him that you are not susceptible to his florid words." His eyes darted away again. "Occasionally by wishing I could stomp on his face with my hooves."

Usa giggled, which drew a stare from Saturn some paces away.

"Helios, this is a side of you I've never seen," Usa admitted. She tried to repress a smile. "It's kind of funny. I never pictured you as the caveman type." She reached over and nuzzled his neck with her nose. "But that's OK. I never went for the caveman type anyway. I always liked your type better."

"And what exactly is 'my type'?" Pegasus inquired, reassurance lending a lighter tone to his question.

"Caring and sensitive," Usa answered, nuzzling his neck some more. "With a cute butt and the dreamiest eyes ever known. Nerites is OK, but he's a little too into himself to ever be any competition for you."

"Once again, Maiden," Pegasus said, "you have proven just how perceptive you truly are."

Usa pulled back and stared at him for a moment. Then she saw the glint in his eyes. Saturn turned back to them upon hearing both of them break up laughing.

"Looks like the latest crisis is over," Juno commented, glancing at the couple from half-way up the hill.

"Good thing," grunted Vesta. "About time she got over it and got back to the problem. Crying over killing an enemy."

"Boy, you're grumpier than usual," Ceres noted.

"You can take anything too far," Vesta argued. "Even 'compassion for the enemy'. Evolution comes from one species killing off a competitor or evolving to keep from being killed."

"I don't think that's all of it," Ceres replied. Vesta gave her a funny look.

"Vesta's mad because Mr. Unicorn makes goo-goo eyes at the Princess and not her," Pallas said with a smug spring to her step.

"What did I tell you about getting in my head?" Vesta rumbled.

"She didn't have to read your mind," Ceres snorted. "All she has to do is read your face."

"It is pretty obvious, Vesta," Juno added. "You glare at Nerites every time he cuddles up to the Princess."

"Maybe he's just not in to the criminal type," Ceres said haughtily. "Or maybe you're too butch for him."

"Or maybe I ought to drop you off a building," Vesta grumbled.

Suddenly she pushed off the side of the hill with her legs and became airborne. The others watched her fly off to the west, where Skoteinos had been sighted. Instantly Pallas pushed off and followed her. Juno and Ceres looked at each other.

"Suppose we hurt her feelings?" Juno asked.

"Vesta has feelings?" Ceres replied. Juno sighed and then pushed up into the air to pursue the others. Ceres shook her head, then joined her sisters in the air.

"Vesta!" Pallas called after her. Vesta slowed up to allow her sister to catch up. "Pallas is sorry if she made you mad."

"Wasn't you," Vesta told her. "I just figured that there was better things to do than listen to Ceres be catty. These mist creatures are still around and I'd feel a lot better knowing where they were and what they were doing."

"Pallas will help you!" Pallas offered.

"Sounds good," Vesta replied. "Let me know if you see something."

The two winged horses soared above the ground, flying a vaguely circular pattern radiating out from the grove of trees that had already been consumed by the Skoteinos. During their flight, they were joined by Juno and Ceres, and the four flew in pairs searching the ground.

"Vesta! Pallas sees one!" Pallas exclaimed. In the distance, a Skoteinos was hovering over a patch of ground. The grass around it was brown and dead, while a single decaying tree limb pointed out of the top of the cloud.

"That's one," Vesta said. "Seems like there ought to be more."

Then activity on the ground caught her eye.

"The wolf pack," Vesta thought aloud. "They seem pretty agitated about something." Vesta swooped in, with Pallas following. "Pallas, keep your distance. These wolves don't trust anybody. I don't want to give them a reason to attack you."

"But what about you?" Pallas asked.

"I don't have to stay in this form. Fauna assimilation, Timber Wolf!" Vesta called out. As she landed, her form changed from a winged horse into a timber wolf. On the ground, she approached the pack cautiously, stopping when two of the sentry wolves challenged her.

"What do you want?" the pack leader demanded, her head low and her shoulders arched as she moved closer. "You may look like a wolf, but you can't disguise your scent from me. You're the shape-changer who attacked us earlier."

"I was defending my pack," Vesta replied as if she needed no other explanation. "I'm not looking for a fight now, but I won't back down from it if you choose to attack."

"Then why are you here?" the pack leader demanded again. The rest of the pack circled behind her warily.

"I saw you from above," Vesta explained. "Something's got you on edge. I'm interested to know what."

"Can't you feel it, shape-changer?" the pack leader asked. "Doesn't your nose work in this form?"

Vesta sniffed. She seemed to sense something.

"Yes," the pack leader said. "The mist creatures are on the move. They normally move only at night. But not now."

"They're coming this way, aren't they?" Vesta concluded. "They've found out we've killed one of them."

"So you're not that stupid," the pack leader observed. "Yes. We're retreating. This is no place for the living to be. Let the mist creatures feed on the equines."

Vesta turned and headed toward Pallas.

"You're headed for them, idiot!" the pack leader barked.

"I know that!" Vesta barked back. "I have to try to kill them! Otherwise, pretty soon there won't be anyplace left to run!"

The pack leader and her pack stood and watched Vesta transform back into a winged horse. Together she and Pallas got airborne and headed in the direction of the Skoteinos.

"You're a fool," the pack leader said. "But I hope you succeed." With that, she turned and bolted toward the east, her pack at her heels.

Continued in Chapter 8


	8. No Place Left To Run

A View From The Other Side  
Chapter 8: "No Place Left To Run"  
A Neo-Sailor Moon fanfic

By Bill K.

* * *

"They're coming this way, aren't they?" Vesta concluded. "They've found out we've killed one of them."

"So you're not that stupid," the wolf pack leader observed. "Yes. We're retreating. This is no place for the living to be. Let the mist creatures feed on the equines."

Vesta turned and headed toward Pallas.

"You're headed for them, idiot!" the pack leader barked.

"I know that!" Vesta barked back. "I have to try to kill them! Otherwise, pretty soon there won't be anyplace left to run!"

The pack leader and her pack stood and watched Vesta transform back into a winged horse. Together she and Pallas got airborne and headed in the direction of the Skoteinos.

"You're a fool," the pack leader said. "But I hope you succeed." With that, she turned and bolted toward the east, her pack at her heels.

"What are we going to do, Vesta?" Pallas asked as the pair of equines flew west.

"We got to find a way to stop those mist creatures," Vesta told her. "They're headed for the unicorns. They found out that one of their own died."

"Are they mad?" Pallas asked.

"Wouldn't you be?"

As they flew, Vesta caught a glimpse of Juno and Ceres flying up from the north.

"Actually Pallas would be sad and cry," Pallas said. "Queen Serenity says nothing comes from vengeance except more pain and vengeance and she wouldn't lie."

"Yeah, well Vesta says if you keep letting people take what's yours, pretty soon you won't have anything left," Vesta countered.

"The Skoteinos are on the move!" Juno shouted as she and Ceres approached.

"And it's huge!" Ceres added.

"I know. They found out about the one creature getting killed," Vesta nodded. "Yours is coming from the north? Scent's coming from the west."

"Maybe they're coming in force," Juno suggested. Vesta nodded again, so she clearly agreed with the assessment. "We should tell the Princess."

"Nobody's stopping you," Vesta replied. Her wings flexed and she launched herself in a northwest direction. Obediently Pallas flew after her. Juno expelled a breath of frustration then flew after her.

"What about the Princess?" Ceres asked, trying to keep up.

"Look at your hooves," Juno responded. "Do you see a communicator?"

"Oh! I can't WAIT to go back to being a human!"

Juno and Ceres caught up with Vesta and Pallas a half mile later. The two were hovering in a spot that was close to where one Skoteinos was undulating forward from the west and another was undulating forward from the north.

"They're so big!" gasped Pallas.

"Suppose the one that got killed was a baby?" Ceres asked.

The mist clouds kept inching forward. Speed might not have been their forte, but relentlessness was. Closer they came to the senshi and to each other. A trail of dry, brown grass was behind them, but Ceres noted that they were distressed rather than sucked completely dry.

Vesta noticed another thing.

"They're gonna merge!" she shouted suddenly. Juno realized the truth. The two clouds were so much bigger than the others because they were several entity clouds merged together into one huge cloud. Now they planned to merge into a monstrous one. "Fauna Assimilation - Pterodactyl!"

Instantly Vesta's body changed into a gigantic prehistoric avian. Quickly Vesta began furiously beating her leathery wings. Juno and Ceres could see she was trying to either dissipate the cloud creatures or at least dissuade them from merging. She began kicking up air currents and the turbulence got so bad that the other senshi were having trouble staying near. Her winds disturbed the outer layer of the cloud creatures.

"Can she do it?" Ceres asked anxiously.

"I don't know," Juno responded. "Those clouds are awful thick."

As they watched, Juno began to realize that all Vesta was doing was holding them in place. She couldn't generate enough wind to break the bonding of the hive-mind creatures. And she was bound to tire sometime. Realizing the futility of Vesta's efforts, Juno began to think about the problem. But out of nowhere, Pallas acted.

"Fiery Incantation!" the horse shouted.

A wall of flame sprang up between Vesta's pterodactyl form and one of the Skoteinos. Normally living creatures would shy from fire. Everyone expected the Skoteinos to do so. But it continued forward, now no longer inhibited by the winds Vesta was kicking up. The heat didn't seem to bother it. If anything, the heat seemed to make the creature expand.

Then Vesta's wind blew the fire onto the creature itself. Instantly the creature recoiled from the wall of flame. Some of the black mist that had been touched by the flame crackled and converted into white smoke.

"That got it!" Juno exclaimed. "It'll keep back now!"

That was when the other Skoteinos acted. As if sensing what had happened to the other, it expanded forward directly for Pallas. The mist creature sought to envelope Pallas within its mists, to render her neutral. This action was motivated by self-defense rather than the hunger that had previously motivated all of its life.

"Pallas, look out!" Vesta shouted a warning.

It was in time and Pallas climbed into the sky to avoid the lunge of the mist creature. With Pallas out of reach, the cloud turned toward Vesta. It expanded out towards her, but Vesta skillfully swooped out of the way and soared up toward Pallas.

"Keep it up, Pallas!" Vesta lauded her companion. "We've got them stopped dead in their tracks!"

"Pallas will stop the other one now!" Pallas proclaimed.

"No, don't!" Ceres shouted out. She flew up to the level Pallas and Vesta were at. "Look at the grass down there! You're causing as much destruction as those mist monsters!"

Pallas and Vesta looked to the ground. The fire wall had burned an ugly gash in the middle of the pasture and was expanding rapidly. It was causing the Skoteinos trapped behind it to retreat quickly, but at what cost?

"Pallas is sorry!" Pallas moaned. "She'll put out the fire!" Vesta looked on. She was frustrated by the turn of events, but had to admit that Ceres was right.

"Can you maybe contain them with your telekinesis?" Ceres suggested. "You know, trap them in a bubble or something?"

Pallas's eyes grew wide and she nodded her head with childish exaggeration.

"Beautiful Incantation!" Pallas called out, gesturing with her forelegs like she was cupping something.

At once, the two cloud creatures began to contract in upon themselves. They each grew smaller and more dense. As they contracted, their shapes began to take on the quality of an eggshell.

"Got them!" Ceres exclaimed.

"Yeah, but now what do we do with . . .?" Vesta began to say.

Then she caught a glimpse of Pallas. The horse was visibly straining to maintain the telekinetic containment. Her eyes were jammed shut, her lips were pulled away from her teeth in a frightful grimace, and her neck muscles quivered with the strain.

"Come on, Pallas! You can do it!" Vesta urged her. "Hold on!"

"We better think of something quick," Ceres said.

"It's not going to work!" Juno shouted, flying up to their altitude. "It's too dangerous!"

A loud whistle pierced the air. The four senshi looked down and saw part of the mist creature shooting up at them with tremendous velocity. Wide-eyed, Juno flexed her wings and hurriedly sought altitude. Emitting a frightened yelp, Ceres quickly followed suit. Pallas dropped her telekinetic containment vessels and she and Vesta quickly climbed out of reach of the shooting black gas. They stopped only when the jet of gas spent itself and fell back to the ground.

"It's never done that before!" Vesta howled.

"It's a gas, Vesta," Juno explained. "Gasses contained in a small space becomes volatile. And if there's a rupture in the containment vessel, it escapes - - sometimes explosively."

"Pallas is sorry," the senshi moaned. "She tried as hard as she could, but the tighter she held onto the bad cloud, the more it fought to get loose."

"You did your best, Pallas," Juno told her. The senshi thought for a second. "Aqua Initiation!" Juno shouted, looking at the heavens.

Clouds began to gather and darken above the Skoteinos and the four senshi. A droplet of moisture landed on Pallas's nose. She looked up and saw the rains come. It was just a light shower, designed to break up the cloud creature. The rains quelled the smoke rising up from the charred remains of the grass Pallas had burned. It succeeded in turning the burned sections into a charcoal mush. The falling water seemed to disorient the two Skoteinos for a time. Droplets would pass through the cloud bodies, their momentum causing the clouds to swirl lightly within themselves. For the moment, they stopped advancing toward each other.

"It's not enough," Ceres judged. "You're not dissipating them."

"Well, they seem confused," Juno argued.

"But for how long?" Ceres countered.

Moments later the two clouds began swirling toward each other, seeking to link up and become one gigantic single mass. Juno grimaced.

"Aqua Initiation, Poor Down Rain!" Juno shouted, bringing her augmented attack into play.

Immediately the sky grew darker, ominously so. It was so dark that the two mist creatures were barely visible. Then the rains came, almost with an audible whoosh. Harder they came, the droplets thick and driving, clustered into great sheets of water. The Asteroid Senshi could not remain aloft in the middle of the pelting force. They landed and huddled under Vesta's spread wings. The pelting rain had less effect on Vesta's leathery skin.

The Skoteinos were receding under the driving blanket of water. Their bodies grew heavier as their particulate matter became saturated with water. The swirling in their bodies from the huge droplets was more chaotic. The dampened clouds were closer to the ground, more spread out and less cohesive. Unfortunately, the side effect was to spread them out and contaminate a wider portion of the field. Ceres surveyed the damage from under Vesta's gigantic wing and grew sick to her stomach.

"Yeah!" Vesta exclaimed. "Juno, I think you're doing it!"

Then Juno fell to one knee, grasping her forehead. Everybody turned to her in alarm. And the rainfall began to slacken. It was still thick and hard, but not as hard as it had been.

"Juno, are you sick?" wailed Pallas.

"Think I've," Juno gasped, "done all I can." She gasped for a breath. "Is it dissipated?"

"No, Juno," Pallas reported reluctantly. "The bad clouds are still there. And Pallas thinks they're beginning to grow again."

The rains died away to nothing. As they slackened, the two Skoteinos began to grow back to their full height. Vesta and Ceres could see they weren't as large as they had been. But they were still plenty big enough to be a threat. Once again they single-mindedly moved to merge. Juno expelled a shuddering breath. She was done in.

And with a sudden surge, the two Skoteinos touched and began to merge into a larger, deadlier whole.

"Pallas, go warn the Princess," Ceres said, watching the mist creature the entire time. "She needs to know about this, just in case we can't stop it."

"Pallas will hurry," Pallas nodded. Then she touched Ceres' shoulder with her nose. "Be careful. Pallas would cry for a long time if you all got hurt."

Shoving off into the air, Pallas flew east for the hill next to the pond.

"I don't know what else to try," Vesta admitted.

"Floral Animation!" Ceres called out.

Instantly the grass still living began to rapidly grow and change. With a life of their own, the plants wove themselves into humanoid shapes. Once Ceres had assembled a squad of ten such plant beings, she sent them charging straight for the merged Skoteinos.

"A banzai charge with your plant men?" goggled Vesta. "What good is that going to do?"

"You're just sending them to their deaths," Juno wheezed.

"I know that!" Ceres snapped, her voice thick with emotion. "But if this works, they won't die for nothing."

"I don't get it," Vesta persisted.

"Haven't you ever wondered how I can grow any plant I choose anywhere, even in areas they're not native to?" Ceres questioned. "Or how I 'just happen to have the right seed' in that pouch I carry? My floral attacks can mutate any plant into any other plant."

"So what did you make those?" Juno asked.

Ceres stared grimly at the Skoteinos. "Castor plants," she replied.

"Aren't their beans poisonous?" Juno asked.

"Deadly," Ceres answered with little emotion.

The squad of plant humanoids charged directly into the massive Skoteinos. Once inside, they instantly withered, crumpling up into dry brown husks. Ceres whirled and looked away, her features twisted up in anguish. She was visibly shaken and it was noticed by her two sisters.

But their attention was forced back to the looming mist creature. The cloud began to move forward and they were in its path. Vesta reached out and shoved Juno to get her attention.

"Hey, we need to move!" Vesta said with alarm. "That thing is headed toward us!"

"Yes, we need to fall back," a shaken Ceres echoed.

The two winged horses and the pterodactyl took to the sky for a short flight and landed fifty yards ahead of the creature. Several grazing winged horses raised their heads and surveyed the situation. Not liking the look of it, they spread their wings and pushed into the air. Vesta turned to Ceres.

"Nothing happened!" she exclaimed. "I thought those plants were supposed to be deadly!"

"They don't work immediately," Ceres responded, tight-lipped.

"So when does it work?" Vesta demanded.

"It depends on how fast that thing metabolizes the ricin in those castor beans," Ceres replied. She was weighed down by something, and that something clearly wasn't the fact that the mist creature was still marching toward them.

"Are you sure you gave it enough?" Juno asked.

"A gram can kill a human being," Ceres answered. "I fed it ten of my humanoids all covered in castor beans. There should be enough ricin in that thing to kill a stadium full of people." She paused to let her swelling emotions subside. "It just doesn't kill immediately."

"How long?" Juno inquired.

"In a human? A few days. They get sick before . . ."

"A few days? Why didn't you just throw rocks at it?" Vesta bellowed.

"Well what was I supposed to use?" snarled Ceres. "A respiratory poison? We don't even know if it breathes! An anti-coagulant? Does it even have blood? This was the only plant poison I knew would do the job! That's because ricin will kill anything with cells and if that mist is sentient, it probably has a cellular structure! Do you think I would have sent ten of my plants to their deaths if I wasn't sure it would work? It just may not work immediately!"

"Ceres," Juno began.

"And DON'T tell me to calm down!" she snapped. "I don't want to be calm! I just sent ten of my plants to their deaths so they could kill another living organism! The last thing I should be is calm!" Ceres shivered and stared at nothing. "Sometimes it scares me just how cold blooded I can be."

Then Ceres felt a horse's nose nudge her side. Turning, she found Vesta, back in her winged horse form, looking solemnly at her.

"We get it," Vesta told her. There was no derisive tone, no words dripping with disdain. Vesta did get it. So did Juno. Ceres looked to the ground.

Vesta and Juno watched the creature inch toward them. The hill was in the background, about two miles away, and the pond beyond it. The mist creature inched along, aided by a slight breeze at its back. Vesta thought about becoming a pterodactyl again and beating at the creature with her wings. But it seemed to be such a futile gesture.

"I don't know what else to try," Vesta admitted. "Maybe we should just pull back and regroup with Sailor Moon."

"Wait a minute," Juno advised. "Something's wrong."

At Juno's direction, Vesta and Ceres looked up at the creature. The massive cloud seemed to be pulsing in its center. The outer mists swirled haphazardly, chaotically. Its advance stopped. The outer edges of the cloud began to sag outwardly. Clumps of mist around the edges dissipated.

"Is it sick?" Vesta asked.

"Probably," Ceres judged. "Some of the symptoms of ricin poisoning are disorientation, nausea and vomiting. Maybe this is the equivalent for these creatures. I just didn't think it would work this fast."

The integrity of the Skoteinos continued to degrade before the eyes of the Asteroid Senshi. As the cloud became less dense, light was visible through it. As it flattened out, expanding over the area like a blanket of poison gas, more and more grass was destroyed. After a few minutes, the last of the creature dissipated, leaving behind a scar of dead grass and plants sliced across the tranquil pasture.

"You did it, Ceres!" Vesta exclaimed. "Way to come through!"

"Yeah," Ceres mumbled sadly as Vesta and Juno pushed off into the air to return to the hill and the other senshi. "Hooray for me."

Continued in Chapter 9


	9. The War Nobody Wanted

A View From The Other Side  
Chapter 9: "The War Nobody Wanted"  
A Neo-Sailor Moon fanfic

By Bill K.

* * *

The unicorns looked up from where they were grazing. Princess Usagi approached, flanked on one side by Sailor Saturn and on the other side by Pegasus. The presence of another male foreign to the herd made some of the members nervous. Several of the fillies looked around for Nerites. The rest parted and allowed the three winged horses through. They didn't have long to wait. From their left Nerites approached, his gaze focused entirely on Usa. Some of the unicorns watched warily as Nerites came up to them, while most of the rest returned to grazing or moved off to their own pursuits.

"Princess," Nerites said, his voice lofty and at the same time deferential. Saturn and Pegasus were ignored. "How may I assist you?"

"Actually," Usa replied with diplomatic patience, "I wanted to speak with Cassandra. I need to run a few ideas by her." Quickly she added, "You're welcome to attend as well."

"My thanks, Princess, for being in your presence makes the day that much brighter," Nerites replied. As he turned to lead them to Cassandra, Usa glanced at Saturn and rolled her eyes. Saturn giggled. Pegasus, though, was not amused.

"Princess Usagi," Cassandra said, bowing her head to the pink and white horse. "What do you seek to know?"

"Do you know of any other worlds like this one?" Usa asked her. "Worlds without living populations, but worlds that could sustain the Skoteinos?"

"What you seek is difficult, Princess," Cassandra responded. "What world could sustain the Skoteinos without having living organisms for them to feed upon? It would be like asking for a world without plants to sustain the unicorn, or a world without small game to sustain the wolves."

"Unless you do not consider the plants to be living populations," Nerites added. "While I feed on such things, I do not consider them things without life. Are not the things you consume things that were once alive?"

Usa's eyes sought the ground.

"I know what you attempt, Princess," Nerites continued. "You seek to give the Skoteinos a world in which they may thrive without it being at the expense of the equines or the wolves. Your nobility shines through once more. But I fear you cannot arrive at a solution where no one is harmed. You must make a choice: Either allow the status quo to continue, banish one of the competing races, or destroy one."

Drawing a long breath, Usa contemplated the alternatives. Finally she looked at Nerites and Cassandra soberly.

"All right," she said. "Are there any worlds without SENTIENT life that could sustain the Skoteinos?"

"I know of none, Princess," responded Cassandra. "But I confess I have not seen every world out there. If I could join with another that has some sight, perhaps I could find such a world as you seek." Cassandra glanced at Saturn. "This one, perhaps?"

"I-I'll do whatever I can," Saturn stammered. "I do have some psychic ability, but I'm not trained."

"It matters not," Cassandra told her. "I know how to look. You can give me the ability to look farther."

Cassandra led Saturn to an ancient tree near the hill. Usa followed, curious. Nerites attempted to move in next to her, but he was cut off by Pegasus. The steed silently warned Nerites away while extending a wing protectively over Usa. Nerites chuckled and moved to a vantage point opposite the others.

"I will touch my horn to your forehead," Cassandra explained. "Do not be frightened. I draw nothing from you. I merely extend my vision through your eyes and allow us both to see that which cannot be seen now."

"All right," Saturn nodded.

Cassandra touched her horn to Saturn's forehead, just between her ears. Saturn's eyes closed. Usa thought she saw Saturn's violet aura swirl around the two equines. Cassandra stared out into the distance, but she was seeing something other than the groves of trees and the sweeping grasslands of this world.

"Speak you, Oh Cassandra," Nerites requested in a calm but commanding voice. "What see you?"

"Worlds upon worlds," Cassandra heaved with a sigh of fatigue. "Worlds barren and devoid of life. Worlds teaming with life. Many worlds and many different creatures upon those worlds. Their capacity for sentience varies greatly, but all possess the ability to perceive."

"Maiden," Pegasus murmured, nudging the horse with his nose.

Usa looked at him and he pointed to the sky. Sailor Pallas was flying their way in a great hurry. As the horse landed, Usa moved to meet her, with Pegasus by her side.

"Pallas, what is it?" Usa asked.

"The bad clouds are coming!" Pallas exclaimed. "Some of them joined together and made one big cloud! Vesta and Juno and Ceres are fighting it now! Pallas tried to fight it, but she wasn't strong enough to hold it!"

"Show me! Take me there!" Usa commanded. She turned to Saturn and Cassandra. "Keep looking! I'll be back!" Nerites looked on anxiously, but she didn't respond.

"Maiden," Pegasus said, holding her back. "Perhaps you should transform first." Usa nodded.

"How did you four run into the Skoteinos?" Sailor Moon questioned Sailor Pallas as the pair flew through the late afternoon sky.

"Vesta went looking for the bad clouds to see what they were doing," Pallas explained. "And she talked to the wolfies and they warned Vesta the bad clouds were coming. And we all saw the bad clouds trying to join up and become one big cloud and we tried to stop them." Pallas looked away. "But we couldn't. And Vesta turned into a dino bird and Juno made it rain really hard and Pallas tried to squash it with her head, but nothing worked!"

"And you're sure they're attacking?" Sailor Moon asked.

"Vesta and Juno said they were," Pallas related. "They think maybe the bad cloud found about the little cloud getting killed by Miss Saturn-Ma'am and the winged horsies."

"What do you think, Helios?" Sailor Moon thought to the being that shared a form with her.

"The cloud creatures could have the ability to communicate with each other," Helios thought back to her. "If that is the case, they could also have the ability to sense the distress of another. If so, their behavior is logical. They would link up to form a larger entity for greater self-defense, and would seek out those who killed the other Skoteinos."

"Are they capable of revenge?"

"It is not known. It may be a simple defense mechanism: eradicate something demonstrated to be deadly to the species."

"Just what we did to that mist creature," Sailor Moon thought. Turning to Pallas, she asked, "Can you sense if the others are all right?"

"Pallas will ask," Pallas answered, then concentrated. Immediately her face lit up. "They're very well, thank you! Vesta and Juno and Ceres are coming to meet us!"

Moments later, Sailor Moon and Sailor Pallas met up with the other Asteroid Senshi. The five flying equines landed.

"What's the status on the mist creature?" Sailor Moon asked.

"It's dead," Juno reported, a cautious eye shot toward Ceres.

"What happened?"

"Well . . ."

"I poisoned it," Ceres admitted. "I know you didn't want to kill these things - - but I didn't see any other way to stop it."

Sailor Moon digested this. "OK," she nodded.

Ceres was surprised by the response.

"Ceres, I trust your judgment. You were there. I wasn't," Sailor Moon told her. "I trust all of your judgements." She smirked. "Well, maybe not Vesta if she's in a nightclub - - but if we're in battle, I trust you four to make the right call."

She noticed her senshi swell with pride.

"The problem is if this action was retaliation for the last death, like you three think it was, it's going to draw an even bigger attack," Sailor Moon assessed. "We have to be ready for that."

"That's OK," Vesta replied. "Between Saturn and Ceres, we know we can take them down."

"There's going to be a lot of potential loss from another fight, though," Juno countered.

"So we take the fight to them," Vesta argued. "Instead of waiting for them to attack, we take them out before they can attack."

"No, Vesta," Sailor Moon said. "I still want to resolve this peacefully, if that's still possible. Knowing we can kill them is something we keep as a last resort, not a first response."

Vesta didn't argue because she knew it was futile. Sailor Moon lifted off and headed back to the unicorn herd, her senshi falling in behind her. When they landed, Nerites came out to greet them.

"You have eradicated another of the Skoteinos," he observed. "I know this distresses you, Princess, but from my perspective this is a good thing. And I know the winged horses and the wolves, and even the rodents they feed upon, share my sentiments."

"Have Cassandra and Saturn found anything?" Sailor Moon asked, brushing the subject aside.

"Not yet, Princess," Nerites replied. "Naturally they will continue looking until you tell them to stop. But you may wish to consider the possibility that they will not find a world suitable for what you plan."

"I've already considered that," Sailor Moon answered. She turned to the Asteroids. "We're going to need to set up perimeter patrols to watch for another Skoteinos attack. Four hour shifts, everybody takes turns. I'll take the first watch. Pallas, you need to be ready to receive and relay any telepathic message from whoever is on patrol if they spot something." She turned back to Nerites. "Tell your people to be on guard. There's probably going to be another attempt by the Skoteinos. We've killed two of them now. I don't think they're going to sit for that."

"In the wild, one is always on guard," Nerites replied. "But I shall do as you ask. Still, I wish you would not risk yourself, Princess." And he approached again, cutting the distance between them to an intimate length.

"It's OK, Nerites. It's what I do. And besides," and she turned to push off into the air, "Helios is with me."

Sailor Moon gained the sky and flew off toward the west to begin her patrol.

"That was an undiplomatic barb, Maiden," she felt Helios think. "You surprise me."

"Some people you have to rap on the nose with a stick," Sailor Moon thought back. "And it's true: I never have to be afraid when you're with me."

"It warms me to know those are your true sentiments, Maiden," Helios thought to her.

The patrol settled into a routine. Sailor Moon, at the suggestion of Helios, would often glide on the wind currents in order to save her strength and increase her stamina. Even so, she would need to set down and rest periodically. There was nothing unusual to see. As night began to fall over Helicon, there was little for Sailor Moon to see other than herds of flying horses begin to bed down and packs of wolves come out to hunt.

"Helios," Sailor Moon asked out of the blue, "why did your father leave this place?"

"I do not know, Maiden," Helios thought back to her. "But by the way Mother always described him, I think he was caught by a need for adventure."

"Adventure?"

"From what I have observed, there is little to life on Helicon other than eating, mating and avoiding becoming prey," Helios explained. "The unicorn my mother described to me wanted more. As such, he journeyed to Elysian to find something different."

"Well pardon me for saying so," Sailor Moon observed, "but if someone is looking for adventure, the last place that someone is going to find it is in Elysian. Unless he was there when Queen Neherenia invaded."

"He was not," Helios answered. "And you are quite correct, Maiden. Life on Elysian was little different than life here. In fact the only difference was my mother. And it was difference enough to convince him to stay - - a little while."

"Do you remember him at all?"

"Bits and pieces," Helios confessed. "Mother's stories have created more of an impression of him than any contact I had. Not even the love he had for my mother could curb the need he had to experience things. It was that need that led him to leave, though he vowed that he would return. And it was that need that eventually led to his demise. But I understand the lure he felt. I, too, have now experienced things that would make my permanently returning to Elysian a condemnation rather than a homecoming. I now much prefer living on Earth. And I much prefer living with you."

"Awwww," Sailor Moon sighed. "Mental smoochies."

Night had fallen now. Sailor Moon had another hour in her patrol. It was again hard to see, so she once more commanded her Luna-P locket to convert into a spotlight. Scanning the ground with her light revealed the occasional rodent scurrying out of cover. There was no sign of the Skoteinos.

"Where do you suppose they are, Helios?" Sailor Moon asked, the wind whipping through her pink mane.

"Perhaps they have retreated rather than risk more of their kind dying," suggested Helios.

"I wish that were it," Sailor Moon replied, "but I can't depend on it."

"Maiden," Helios began cautiously, "what will you do if there is no peaceful way to solve this conflict?"

"There's got to be a way," she thought back stubbornly. "I can't accept that - - that one of these populations has to die."

At that moment, her beam ran across a wolf trapped against the side of a ridge at the edge of the forest. It's back was against the rock and it faced a deadly Skoteinos cloud on all sides. The wolf snarled a warning, its teeth bared. But Sailor Moon could tell that it was a desperate bluff by a desperate creature faced with imminent demise. And the Skoteinos weren't intimidated either. The cloud kept inching closer to the trapped wolf.

Swooping over the cloud, Sailor Moon's horn began to glow with pink energy.

"Moon Princess Halation!" she shouted and covered the swirling mass of black mist with pink energy.

The moment the pink energy blanketed the cloud, it receded. The swirling slowed down. The advance stopped. The cloud just hung in place, unmoving, stuporous. Taking advantage of the reprieve, Sailor Moon swooped down next to the wolf. For its part, the wolf growled at her, all the while trying to somehow push itself through the rock at its back.

"Jump on my back!" Sailor Moon ordered. "I'll fly you to safety!"

"Why?" asked the wolf suspiciously.

"Why?" Sailor Moon goggled. "Because you need help!"

"And how do you benefit?" demanded the wolf.

"I-I benefit by seeing you alive! Look, there isn't time for this! I don't know how long that Skoteinos is going to be under! Get on my back or you're going to die!"

Faced with the prospect of giving itself over to a potential enemy or a real one, the wolf chose Sailor Moon and leaped up onto her back. With the wolf balanced precariously atop her, Sailor Moon pushed up into the sky. She soared about seventy-five yards from the cloud creature and set down. Immediately the wolf leaped from her back and turned to intercept any attack she might make. When she made no attack, the wolf relaxed.

"Are you going to kill it now?" the wolf asked.

"No," Sailor Moon replied. "I'm trying to find a way to settle this without killing anyone."

The wolf snorted contemptuously, then darted into the woods. Sailor Moon stood there, dumbfounded.

"Everybody's a critic," she huffed.

* * *

"I'm sorry we couldn't find anything," Sailor Saturn said. She and Cassandra were walking up the hill toward where the Asteroid Senshi were camped.

"We will try again tomorrow," Cassandra assured her. "I am discouraged, but not defeated. But now we must rest. It is dark and the time for unnecessary movement is past."

The winged horse and the unicorn continued to mount the hill. Suddenly, though, Cassandra stopped. As Saturn looked to her, she turned and looked out over the pasture surrounding the hill.

"What is it?" Saturn asked.

"I feel their presence," Cassandra said intently. The unicorn looked out over the pasture. "Yet I see nothing."

Saturn concentrated, trying to find a dark shape or some sort of movement in the black of the night. There was a low-lying fog on the grass, but nothing unusual. Still, a couple of the unicorns still awake pawed nervously at the ground with their hooves.

"I don't see anything," Saturn said. "Just the fog."

Cassandra turned to her.

"What is fog?" the unicorn asked her. Saturn was about to reply, but the unicorn read the explanation telepathically. At once, she seized up with alarm.

"The Skoteinos . . .!" Cassandra exclaimed.

And a cloud of black mist rose up from the grass, surrounding the herd as the fog coalesced into the inky Skoteinos. Whinnies of alarm rose up as the cloud enveloped the herd.

Continued in Chapter 10


	10. The First Casualty Of Conflict

A View From The Other Side  
Chapter 10: "The First Casualty Of Conflict"  
A Neo-Sailor Moon fanfic

By Bill K.

* * *

"The Skoteinos . . .!" Cassandra exclaimed.

A cloud of black mist rose up from the grass, surrounding the herd as the fog coalesced into the inky Skoteinos. Whinnies of alarm rose up as the cloud enveloped onto the herd.

"NO!" gasped Sailor Saturn. She turned on her hooves and ran up the hill, skidding to a stop long enough to grasp her glaive between her teeth. Vesta was already alerted by the commotion. Juno and Pallas trailed behind her, more puzzled than their sister.

"What is it? An attack?" Vesta yelled.

"YETH!" Saturn shot back through teeth clenched around her glaive. The winged black horse darted back down the hill. Juno and Pallas peered over the side of the hill and found the ground below engulfed by the deadly mists of the Skoteinos, while Cassandra galloped up the hill to safety.

"Pallas! Call the Princess! Tell her we're under attack!" Juno barked. Vesta was about to launch herself into the air. "No, Vesta! Stay here!"

"Why?" demanded Vesta.

"There's nothing you can do!" Juno told her. "Saturn's probably going to use her Azrael attack on them! When she does, I'll hit them with monsoon rains! You don't want to be in the air when that happens! Go roust Ceres and get her to make more of those castor plants!"

Vesta nodded and galloped off. By now Saturn was within feet of the writhing cloud of black mist.

"Azlealsh schlumbuh!" she cried, slamming the blade of the glaive into the ground.

Immediately the glaive began to leech energy from the mists. As before, the outer parts of the mist began to lose energy and coagulate into a liquid form. The mists on the outer rim began to retreat, settling back in the grass as a light fog. The mists on the inner part of the cloud could not retreat and continued to liquify.

But this cloud was much bigger than the one Saturn had dealt with previously. Dark energy leeched from the cloud began to creep perilously close to Saturn as it inched up the handle of her glaive. Juno and Pallas both recognized that Saturn was barely holding on, trying to leech as much as she could before breaking contact.

"Is Miss Saturn-Ma'am going to be able to change all of the bad cloud, Juno?" Pallas asked anxiously.

"I don't think so, Pallas," Juno replied. She stood ready to act when Saturn couldn't any longer.

Suddenly Saturn pulled her glaive away. She spun it up until it pointed directly into the air and discharged the energy that was being stored in it. Her black body glistened in the moonlight with the sweat of her exertion.

"Aqua Initiation, Poor Down Rain!" Juno shouted, invoking her command of water.

Quickly clouds began to form in the night sky. The air seemed to saturate with water vapor, becoming heavy like a wool cloak.

"Beautiful Incantation!" Pallas shouted and gestured toward Saturn's glaive. Suddenly it was easier to hold for the winged black horse, as if invisible hands steadied it. She continued to discharge energy from the glaive even as monsoon rains came. The heavy pounding rain diluted the liquified portion of the Skoteinos and washed it away into the pasture surrounding the hill. As the rains pounded the immediate area, the fog that hung over the grasslands dissipated.

"Juno, look!" wailed Pallas.

Washing away the remains of the Skoteinos revealed their handiwork. Dozens of unicorns lay dead at the foot of the hill, desiccated husks laying in a bed of brown, brittle grass. Nothing lived where the Skoteinos had been. Pallas turned away, tucking her head under her wing. Juno could hear the mournful sobs from her sister, but she was too stunned to move. She only stared as the rain began to slacken. Saturn had stopped in her ascent up the hill and just looked. Then she turned and bowed her head.

"If only I had foreseen this," Cassandra mumbled in shock. "I could have warned them. I could have saved them. If only I had foreseen it." Then a realization made the unicorn's eyes widen in horror. "Nerites!" Her eyes darted from corpse to corpse, looking for the unicorn that had claimed her heart as he had so many in the herd. "NERITES!"

"Cassandra!" a voice boomed through the darkness. Desperately Cassandra followed it, running across the top of the hill to the side that faced the pond.

Vesta was there. Further down the hill was Ceres. Below was the same devastation as on the other side. Dozens of unicorns, as well as a few winged horses mixed in, were dead and desiccated. The grass surrounding them was dry and dead. The pond had a sickly blackness to it that warned someone by its very appearance that it wasn't fit to touch. And on the other side of the pond, with two mares from the herd, was Nerites. Cassandra galloped down the hill, leaped over the ring of corpses surrounding it, and ran up to Nerites. She pressed her body against his and rubbed her neck against his.

"Thank the gods you are still alive, my Nerites!" Cassandra gasped, her voice trembling.

"And I am doubly blessed, Cassandra," Nerites replied softly, "for you live, too."

Vesta and Ceres turned and walked to the center of the hill. They met Saturn and Juno there. Vesta looked around them and spotted Pallas. She was still crying.

"Same thing happen over here?" Vesta asked them.

"Yeah," Juno replied. "The mist was on top of them before Saturn could draw out their energy and liquify them. You?"

"I sacrificed about fifty plant men, all of them castor plants," Ceres said, in dull shock. "But their effect isn't quick enough to stop those mist creatures if they got hold of a living being." Resolve seemed to flicker and grow within the horse. "This can't go on. They're ravaging this pasture, not to mention the animals. We've got to do something."

"Wait for the Princess," Juno advised.

Vesta scowled.

A few minutes later Sailor Moon appeared on the horizon. As she drew closer to the area, she could see what was left. Landing on the hill, she found Saturn and the Asteroids waiting for her. Nerites and Cassandra were waiting for her, too.

"What happened?" Sailor Moon asked anxiously.

"The Skoteinos," Nerites spoke up before anyone else could respond. "They came. And as they always do, they destroyed."

"They disguised themselves as a ground fog," Saturn related. "Nobody was aware of them until they struck. It was a total ambush."

"Yeah, they hit hard and fast, and they knew what they were doing," Vesta added. "Looks like they got their revenge."

"You're assuming emotion, Vesta," Sailor Moon softly disagreed. "They demonstrate a tactical ability, yes, but they may have just been acting out of self-defense . . ."

"What does it matter!" Nerites seethed. Startled, Sailor Moon looked at him. "My herd is dead! Most of the finest breed mares born to this area, gone! What is to become of us now, Princess? How is this herd supposed to promulgate? It matters not why the Skoteinos did what they did! What matters is they did it! And if they are not stopped, they will do it again!"

"Nerites . . ."

"One of the reasons I brought you here was to help avoid this!" Nerites continued unappeased. "I hoped that you might have the power to end this threat to our way of life! And I was right! You do! You have already succeeded twice in neutralizing these creatures so they are not a threat to anything living! YOU JUST LACK THE WILL!"

"Hey, back off!" snarled Vesta.

"Wait a minute," Sailor Moon said. "'One' of the reasons?"

"Yes, I admit it!" spat Nerites. "The spell Cassandra helped me cast was no accident. I changed you into an equine to lure you here, in hopes that you would grow to like it and join my herd, as well as help us stave off the threat of the Skoteinos! CLEARLY I was wrong to think you could aid us with the latter! And as of now, I wouldn't want you in what's left of this herd if you were the last breed mare in the universe!"

Shoving past Vesta, Nerites jammed his face up into Sailor Moon's.

"Destroy the Skoteinos or go and leave us to our fate!" Nerites demanded. "But by the gods, make a decision! All you've done so far is get my herd killed!"

And the unicorn stormed off. Cassandra paused with a last look, silently saying she sympathized with Sailor Moon without agreeing with her actions, then followed her herd male.

"Thanks for sticking up for me, Vesta," Sailor Moon whispered.

"It's my job," Vesta muttered. "I agree with him."

Sailor Moon stared impatiently.

"Yeah, Sailor Moon," Ceres spoke up. "How many more have to die? Look at the scars on this pasture. It used to be beautiful. It'll be decades before it's beautiful again. Look at the apple trees down by the pond. Some of the leaves are already beginning to wither because they're drawing water from a poisoned pond."

"The Skoteinos - - they're just trying to live," Sailor Moon argued.

"But they killed all of the horsies!" wailed Pallas.

"Why are you defending them, Sailor Moon?" Ceres demanded. She was tearing up, too. "They don't contribute anything to this planet! They just destroy! God, it's like you're defending cockroaches! Who cares if a cockroach dies?"

"There has to be a way to resolve this problem without exterminating an entire species!" Sailor Moon persisted.

"Because that's what the Queen would do?" Juno asked. She was trying to be deferential to Sailor Moon's position, but it was a struggle. "Look, no disrespect - - but be careful that you don't let this situation spiral out of control just because you're obsessed with being like your mother."

The silence that surrounded the group was suddenly oppressive. Sailor Moon didn't respond, but she wouldn't look at anyone either. Vesta and Ceres took the opportunity to move away. Pallas followed Vesta as she always did. Unwilling to endure a suddenly uncomfortable environment, Juno joined her sisters. Sailor Moon stared off into space. Saturn eased up to her and rubbed her friend's neck with the side of her head.

"I'm not trying to be like Mom," Sailor Moon choked out. "I'm following Mom's philosophy. I'm doing it because it's right, not because it's Mom. There has to be a way, Saturn."

"I believe you," Saturn replied. "But the thing you have to ask yourself if how much time do you have left to look for that solution? They're dying, on both sides. And the longer we wait, looking for that perfect solution, the more die. I don't want to exterminate an entire species any more than you do. But after what happened here, there may not be any other option - - aside from giving up and going home."

"You too?" Sailor Moon asked softly.

"Sometimes life makes you choose," Saturn said forlornly. "I don't want to choose, but if I have to choose, I'm not going to choose the Skoteinos. Ceres is right. They don't contribute anything. They just destroy."

Sailor Moon nodded sadly. Then she flexed her shoulders and hind quarters and launched up into the air. Saturn stared after her, heart breaking.

"Maiden?" Sailor Moon felt in her brain as she flew aimlessly.

"Please, Helios. Not you, too," she thought back. "I'm not wrong. I'm not! There has to be a way! I can't just resort to exterminating an entire species because it's convenient. I believe in what Mom has always believed in, just like Pop and the Inners do. If I abandon that the first time things get rocky, do I truly believe in it?"

"I was merely seeking to comfort you, Maiden," Helios offered. "Your adherence to your beliefs in the face of personal adversity is what makes you strong. But nothing in this life comes without a cost. If you are not willing to accept that you may be sacrificing the equines, the wolves, the smaller rodents and all of the flora of this world in order to pursue those beliefs, then you are not seeing the total picture."

Sailor Moon sighed. "Maybe I am fooling myself. Maybe there is no way. Maybe to save four species, I have to exterminate one."

"If you must make such a choice," Helios suggested, "know that the Skoteinos came from another world after they consumed it. And they will consume this world if left unchecked and either die out from lack of sustenance or move on to another world - - possibly Earth."

* * *

Luna entered the Royal Chambers and found the Queen sitting in a chair, her legs pulled up to her chin. One of the cat's eyebrows cocked.

"I knew I would find you here," the black cat said acidly.

"Luna, go away," the Queen replied petulantly.

"I most certainly will NOT," Luna huffed. She marched into the room, tail straight up and her nose defiantly in the air. "Your confidence in your daughter's capabilities is astounding." The cat turned to the Queen. "And that was sarcasm, by the way."

"Luna, that girl could be five hundred and three and I'll still worry about her," Serenity shot back. "It's a big, bad universe out there and it just waits for young, idealistic girls to reach for the stars so it can knock them down." Her chin rested on her knees. "I know." Serenity sighed. "What I wouldn't give for her to be five again."

"Ask for the moon and the stars, while you're about it," Luna scowled. "You're going to have to let go one of these days, Your Majesty. Suppose she decides to marry Helios, as you've been not-so-subtlety pushing her to do, and moves away to become a missionary in Borneo or the Martian Moons?"

"Why can't she be a missionary here?" Serenity asked. Luna rubbed her temple.

"Debating with you always gives me a headache," Luna sighed.

"Luna, it seems like every mission she's gone on lately has been some sort of trauma for her," Serenity maintained. "You see her. You've heard what Diana tells us about her. I don't want her to go through anymore of that!" Serenity's lip quivered. "I want my old daughter back - - the one who always argued with me, the one who knew everything and was obsessed with proving that she was better than I ever was." Serenity turned to the cat. "How many scars is she going to have to endure?"

"Adversity makes us stronger, Your Majesty," Luna suggested.

"Or destroys us," Serenity whispered.

"It won't destroy her," Luna assured the Queen.

"That's probably what they said in that other dimension," Serenity said sadly. "Kousagi's dimension."

The cat gave her a curious look, which Serenity missed entirely.

"Your Majesty," Luna began, concerned. "As long as I've known you, your philosophy of life has always been 'expect the best of people'. Doesn't that apply to Usa as well?"

Serenity's head lifted from her knees and she shot Luna a horrified look. She looked away, her hand coming to her mouth. For a few seconds there was silence. Then a timid smile crept onto her lips.

"Thank you, Luna," Serenity said softly.

"Not at all, Your Majesty," Luna smiled.

* * *

Saturn and the Asteroids stood at the top of the hill, looking out over the land. They searched for any sign of the Skoteinos, but they also searched for any sign of Sailor Moon.

"When do you suppose they'll be back?" Ceres wondered aloud.

"Depends," Juno surmised. "If they think the threat to them has been neutralized, they'll go back to feeding. If not . . ."

"Maybe we should take the fight to them," Ceres pondered.

"Go against Sailor Moon?" Saturn questioned openly. She was aghast at the thought and didn't care to conceal it.

"Yeah, that's the big question," Juno frowned. "She leads. We go where she leads, whether we agree or not. If we don't, do we belong being her senshi?

"I just," Ceres began. "It's such a waste! And we can stop it! I mean, what if she's wrong?" Saturn silently flashed back to what Mizuno-Sensei had told her earlier.

"Then she's wrong," Vesta grunted. "You go where your leader tells you to go. You do what your leader tells you to do. Or you get out."

"So if she leads you over a cliff, you follow her?" Ceres argued.

"Yeah," Vesta responded without hesitation. Then she smirked. "Of course, I can fly."

Ceres smothered a laugh with great difficulty and just a little embarrassment.

"Look!" Pallas exclaimed. "It's the Princess!"

Swooping in out of the north, Sailor Moon landed near the gathered senshi. She stood tall, her wings extended majestically for a moment until she folded them into her body. They all could see she had that look in her eye, the one she always had when she had settled on a course of action and wouldn't let go until she was victorious or dead.

Maybe she was going to pull off a miracle, just like her mother so often did.

But there was still a gulf of ill-will between them. She was about to speak, then hesitated as memories of the confrontation, of their doubt, of hers came flooding back. The others waited, praying that she could salvage the situation, because they didn't know how to and save face. Finally Saturn stepped forward and that broke the ice.

"Talk to us, Sailor Moon," Saturn told her. "We're ready to listen."

"I've got a plan," Sailor Moon announced. "But I can't do it alone. I need you five. I might need every being on this planet, but I definitely need you five. Are we still a team?"

"Are we finally going to kill these things?" Vesta asked point blank.

"No," Sailor Moon replied in a tone that wouldn't be argued with. "But I may end up killing us."

Continued in Chapter 11


	11. Turn And Face The Strain

A View From The Other Side  
Chapter 11: "Turn And Face The Strain"  
A Neo-Sailor Moon fanfic

By Bill K.

* * *

"I've got a plan," Sailor Moon announced. "But I can't do it alone. I need you five. I might need every being on this planet, but I definitely need you five." She hesitated for a moment. "Are we still a team?"

"Are we finally going to kill these things?" Vesta asked point blank.

"No," Sailor Moon replied in a tone that wouldn't be argued with. "But I may end up killing us."

"Great plan," Ceres muttered.

"What's your plan, Sailor Moon?" Saturn prompted.

"I'm going to use the crystal to change the genetic structure of the Skoteinos," Sailor Moon outlined. "Instead of feeding off of the life energies of living beings, I'll alter their gene structure into creatures that feed through photosynthesis."

"Like plants!" Ceres goggled.

"That way they can co-exist on the planet and not harm the other species," Sailor Moon continued, "or the planet. I just wish I'd thought of it sooner!"

"You can do that?" Saturn asked suspiciously.

"With my crystal? Yeah."

"Safely?"

Sailor Moon's eyes rolled skyward. "Well, that's the catch. No way I have enough energy to pull something like that off - - not without dying anyway. That's why I'm asking for your help. If I combine all of our energies, I've got a better chance of pulling this off and living."

"Wouldn't it be easier just to kill these things?" Vesta asked uneasily.

"What's easy isn't always what's right, Vesta," Sailor Moon maintained. "Look, I'm not going to order any of you to do it . . ."

"Good thing," Ceres quipped.

"But I'm going to do it," Sailor Moon continued. "It's - - what's right."

"I'll help you, Sailor Moon," Saturn spoke up immediately.

"You know what might happen?" asked Sailor Moon. "Even with the two of us, I still might not make it. And I might accidentally take you with me."

Saturn looked down shyly. "I'd rather risk my life making sure you're OK than live it mourning life without you." Sailor Moon's eyes misted.

"I'm in," Vesta announced. Sailor Moon looked gratefully at her. "Hey, protecting you is my job. I'm just doing my job."

"Pallas will help, too," Pallas declared. "Pallas will do it if Vesta will."

"Then I guess I'm in, too," Juno sighed. "Four's got to be better odds than three."

The Asteroids all looked to Ceres.

"All right!" Ceres huffed. "I suppose if I have to risk dying, it ought to be for something noble. But I BETTER not get any scars from this!"

"Thank you," Sailor Moon said. "I couldn't have a better team of senshi."

"So what do we do now?" Juno asked. "We're not exactly built to join hands."

As an answer, Sailor Moon closed her eyes. A warp appeared before her chest and her pink crystal slipped out. The jewel's glow radiated brilliantly, illuminating the hill and drawing the curious stares of the unicorns who were still alive. As the jewel levitated to a point roughly a foot from her nose, Sailor Moon spoke.

"Form a circle," she said distantly. "Touch your noses to the crystal."

Each senshi complied. The six winged horses formed a circle around the gem. Gently they touched their noses to the crystal. As they did so, each one closed her eyes.

"Let your power flow to me," Sailor Moon requested.

Instantly she could feel a surge of energy through the crystal. Each surge had its own wavelength that seemed to correspond with a color in her mind. The largest energy wave was violet. It had to be Saturn. Saturn's energy was nearly as great as her own, and easily dwarfed the energy of the Asteroids combined. But every little bit helped and Sailor Moon was grateful for it.

"Are," Sailor Moon heard a voice in her mind, "are we inside you?" It sounded like Juno, though there was no sound.

"Has to be," came another voice in her head, probably Vesta. "It's all pink and girly."

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!" cackled Pallas. "Pallas feels so warm!"

"Actually, we're all united in the crystal," Saturn told them. "I can sense your minds, too."

"I'm sensing someone else," Ceres 'spoke' up. "Almost feels like a guy."

"Helios?" Sailor Moon thought with alarm.

"I am here as well, Maiden," Helios assured her.

"Horsie!" squealed Pallas.

"I forgot you were in here!" Sailor Moon gasped. "We have to stop! I can't take the risk of you dying with me!"

"Oh, but you can risk us?" Ceres observed.

"Maiden," Helios thought, calmly but firmly, "you cannot maintain your transformation without my energies. And your plan cannot succeed unless you are Sailor Moon."

"But . . .!"

"Do not fear failure, Maiden. Expect success."

They all could feel her wavering. But after what Helios had just said, what could they say that wouldn't be trite and unconvincing? Anxiously they waited and hoped that Sailor Moon could find the will to set aside her fear that she was an inadequate successor to her mother.

The light inside the pink crystal dimmed. And then it brightened again.

"Expect success," they all felt Sailor Moon think.

But what happened next was a surprise to them. They all felt Sailor Moon reach out with her crystal until the energies touched other beings. One was Nerites. Cassandra was another. On it went until she was in communication with every equine, horned or flying, that resided upon Helicon.

"Princess?" communicated Nerites.

"I have a request," Sailor Moon thought. "Lend me the energies that let you exist. I promise I won't take it all and I promise that none of you will be harmed. If you do this, hopefully I," and she stopped for a beat, "I mean, you definitely will never have to fear the Skoteinos again."

"And we will not be harmed?" came a different mental voice. It was that of the wolf pack leader. Through the contact, Sailor Moon learned her name was Kaniss.

"I pledge upon my life," Sailor Moon replied.

"I would do anything to be rid of the hated Skoteinos," Kaniss said, "short of dying. Very well. Take what you need. But do not fail."

"I have doubts about your will, Princess," Nerites thought, "but the wolves have a point. Take what you need. I hope that whatever you plan to do works."

Sailor Moon felt even more energy rush into her. She'd never felt so powerful before. But would it be enough? The others felt her mind reach out through the crystal and touch the rodents and the plants of the planet. Neither had enough intellect to communicate and approve, so she gently drew energy from them as well.

As it flowed in, though, the young senshi began to wonder if she had taken in too much. The power, which had always been easy to control, now writhed like an angry serpent in her mental hands. Was this what her mother experienced every time she attempted to manipulate her world-changing power? Anxiously she bore down. What if she couldn't handle it? The doubt seemed familiar. So did the struggle for control. Then it hit her. When she was four and had tried to manipulate the Silver Crystal, only to succeed in plunging her mother into a coma and changing her father into a wraith - - that's what it felt like. Panic began to surge up.

"No! Get a grip, Usa!" she thought to herself. "You can do this! You HAVE to do this! Too many lives are depending upon you doing this!"

"Vesta, Pallas can sense all of the trees and flowers!" they all felt Pallas exclaim. "And she can feel all of the mousies!"

"They're not mice, Pallas," Vesta gently corrected her. "They're sort of a distant cousin to mice."

"Pallas wonders if they know Me," Pallas thought. They all felt her grow sad for a moment. "Pallas misses Me."

"Concentrate on what you're doing," Ceres lightly admonished.

The senshi felt their energies swirling around within the crystal, mixing into a single source of will to feed the mystical gem. The sensation was odd, as if they were still part of their corporeal bodies and yet separate from them. And there was a fleeting, lingering sensation that they were all part of each other: Pallas was Vesta, Juno was Ceres, Saturn was Helios and they were all Sailor Moon. They had lent Sailor Moon their energies before, but this was different. Now they could feel the tremendous energies she commanded, energies that dwarfed their own power. And they could sense the power she had in reserve and was still too unskilled and immature to tap into.

The crystal pulsed.

"What was that?" Juno mentally asked.

"Her crystal," they all felt Helios reply. "It builds to the task."

"Are we going to make it?"

"With faith."

The senshi felt the crystal continue to build with a growing sense of familiarity. The crystal seemed to be squeezing. It wasn't painful, but they felt a tension that only Pallas couldn't liken to a previous experience. Then it would pulse again and the buildup would repeat at a more intense level. Slowly the other senshi became lost in the sensation. Only dimly aware of each other, they were more focused on feeding the crystal and letting it's power grow until it was sufficient to accomplish Sailor Moon's task. Each pulse, though, caused them to shiver. Pallas didn't quite understand.

But she liked it.

"Look, Nerites," Cassandra nodded from the foot of the hill. She and Nerites and the few surviving unicorns of his herd had been crossing the pasture in search of a suitable resting place, as their old home was surrounded by death and destruction. "Upon the hill."

"That is where the Princess was," Nerites assessed.

"Is the glow from her?" one of the unicorn mares asked.

"I would not be surprised," the unicorn leader replied. "Perhaps this is her plan."

"It is odd," Cassandra commented. "When I felt the Princess in my mind and agreed to her request, I thought I would feel differently than I do. I feel some fatigue, but not nearly as much as I expected."

"Nor do I." Nerites nodded.

"Do you think she took enough?"

"Only the fates can answer that, Cassandra," Nerites answered. "Or you, if you've a mind to look and a window to see through. Knowing the Princess, she probably didn't wish to inconvenience us too greatly and didn't take enough - - and will fail."

"Nerites," Cassandra chided him. "You speak from the sting of rejection."

"I speak from the bitterness of watching my herd die," Nerites corrected her. "If she succeeds, I will grant her what is due her. But my expectations are low. So far all she has accomplished is to make a pretty light." The unicorn turned. "Come, we must still find another good grazing land."

The crystal pulsed again, harder. Everyone felt Pallas mentally giggle. Sailor Moon tried to ignore it, tried to focus on drawing every last bit of energy she could to her and focusing it through her pink crystal. It was like it always was when she used her crystal: Immense power flowing through her body like the very blood in her veins. But always there was a dead spot, where the crystal was draining her, taking her energy to magnify and grant her wish.

"Change the Skoteinos into beings that can coexist in harmony with the other life on this world," she pleaded with the crystal.

The crystal pulsed again. This time she felt Saturn gasp in shock. The others were anxious, but tried not to think about it. She was drawing too much from them. They were beginning to feel the stresses she felt.

"Change them, please!" she thought.

Again the crystal pulsed. The light atop the hill became so intense that a pack of wolves stopped in mid-hunt and looked up at the show. Kaniss stared up at the pink radiance, entranced by what she saw and what she felt.

"Change them," Sailor Moon thought.

Miles away, a Skoteinos was dimly aware of the glow in the distance. It registered in its hive-mind as an anomaly. Quickly the hive-mind went to work. When it was determined that the glow was neither food nor threat, the sight was dismissed

"Change them!"

The pulse only lasted for the time it might take to blink an eye. It was felt more than seen. But everybody felt it, from the senshi next to the crystal to wolves and equines and rodents and Skoteinos on the other side of the planet. What was seen was a pink wave of energy that radiated out from the pulse in every direction. Everything grew silent. Some cringed in fear as the wave passed through them, while others watched with keen interest. Others still determined that the wave was neither food nor threat and dismissed it.

Then the collective bonding that held the hive-mind of each Skoteinos together evaporated. Individual particles that made up each Skoteinos were free of each other. Some drifted on the wind, while others gently fell to the ground. Each particle was in shock, unable to communicate with any of the other particles. Confusion set in at the utter aloneness each particle felt.

"Damn it!" Sailor Moon thought. She could feel how much energy that pulse had taken out of her. Another try would be risky. But to do nothing would be to fail - - again.

"Did we do it?" she felt Saturn ask.

"No," Sailor Moon thought back and was surprised by how ragged her thoughts were. "I disassembled them, but the pulse didn't reassemble them."

"Problem solved," Vesta proposed.

"Problem not solved," Sailor Moon responded. "We're going to change them into a benign life form."

"And kill yourself in the process?" Vesta countered. "I can feel how much that took out of you."

Sailor Moon didn't respond.

"Are you going to try again?" Saturn prodded. "We'll help you."

"Yeah, don't worry about us. Just do the job," Juno added.

Once more Sailor Moon concentrated on connecting with the center of her crystal. She could feel everyone's presence around her. She could feel the crystal waiting placidly for her to make a request of it. But she could feel the growing fatigue within her. The misfire had taken some vitality out of her.

"You OK in there Helios?" Sailor Moon thought before making another attempt.

There was silence.

"Helios?"

"I am here, Maiden," Helios thought back to her.

"You don't sound good, Helios," Sailor Moon thought, her alarm growing.

"I was not aware thoughts could be heard, Maiden," he thought back.

"You know what I mean!"

"Do not concern yourself with me, Maiden. Make this happen. I believe in your ability far more than you do. And therefore I am in no danger."

With more than a little doubt clouding her thoughts, Sailor Moon linked up with her crystal's center. She asked it to reshape the Skoteinos into beings that fed on sunlight and did no harm to the environment or to the denizens of that environment. She asked that in doing so, no harm come to anyone else on Helicon. And she asked that, should her own spirit be inadequate to the task, that Helios and the others be spared from being consumed when the crystal drew its power to act.

"Do it, Princess," Vesta almost commanded.

"Pallas believes in you," Pallas told her.

"Don't worry about us," Juno reiterated.

"We're all behind you," Ceres added.

Sailor Moon took a breath.

"You're not four anymore, Usa," Saturn said. "Time to believe in yourself."

Resolve washed over her doubt. Sailor Moon focused on her task and engaged her crystal. At once, every fiber of her being seemed to clench. Sailor Moon suddenly thought that she would explode. Was this the end? Had she asked too much of the crystal? Did she at least have enough to shield Helios and the others? That became her overriding concern, more so than her own safety.

Once again the pulse was momentary. Across the planet, a wave of pink energy shot out, covering every inch of Helicon. When the pink wave dissipated, the black particles that had been the Skoteinos were the Skoteinos once again. One reformed near where Nerites and what remained of his herd were. Several of the mares reared fearfully at the appearance of the dreaded clouds.

"Cassandra! Lead the others to safety!" Nerites ordered. "I will guard your retreat as best I can!"

"Nerites, look!" Cassandra countered. She gestured with her horn and Nerites' eyes followed.

The grass from where the Skoteinos moved from was green and lush. Part of a tree limb stuck into the cloud and there was no visible sign of degeneration.

"Is it possible?" Nerites wondered aloud. "Has the Princess's efforts actually succeeded?"

Nerites approached the cloud cautiously.

"Skoteinos," he projected telepathically. "Can you recognize my thoughts?"

"We hunger," the mist cloud thought back. "Where is the sun?"

"The sun has set," Nerites replied. "Why do you wish to know?"

"We feed upon the sun's light now," it thought back. "The other made it so. When will the sun return?"

"In a few hours."

"Then we must conserve energy," and the mist cloud settled upon the grass like a low-lying fog. Haltingly Nerites approached. With great care, and amid the fearful whinnies of the remnants of his unicorn herd, Nerites lifted his front leg and dipped the edge of his hoof into the mist. When nothing happened, he stepped in up to his knee.

"She has done it," Nerites gasped softly. He turned to his herd. "The Skoteinos are no longer a threat!"

Breaking from the cloud, Nerites galloped through the remains of his herd.

"Nerites, where do you go?" Cassandra called after him. She and the herd began to follow, trying to catch up.

"To tell the Princess!" he called back. "And to offer my apologies!"

But when he ascended the hill and found what was there, Nerites could only stare speechless.

Concluded in Chapter 12


	12. There's Something Different About You

A View From The Other Side  
Chapter 12: "There's Something Different About You"  
A Neo-Sailor Moon fanfic

By Bill K.

* * *

Finally Luna had managed to badger the Queen into leaving the Royal Chambers and get on with business of State. And just in time, too, for her scheduled meeting with a group of children who had won their school's essay contest was nearly due. As they traveled down the corridor to the castle's Royal Receiving Room, Luna tried to bring Serenity up to speed on what the contest was and what she would face. There was little reason to worry on her part, though. Serenity was always such a wonder with children that she could go into a room of them cold and be an instant hit.

The cat stopped and turned, finding Serenity staring off into space. The Queen seemed anxious.

"Have you sensed something?" Luna asked.

The Queen took a steadying breath and stared pensively off at nothing.

"She'll be all right," Serenity told herself. "She'll handle it."

"Well done, Your Majesty," Luna assured her.

"She's using her crystal," Serenity told her.

"Trust and faith, Your Majesty," Luna reminded her.

"Come on," Serenity said with a tremor in her voice. "Let's not keep the kids waiting."

But as the door opened, Luna caught Serenity looking toward a window at the end of the hall, as if she hoped to see something.

* * *

Saturn was the first to revive. She was on her side, still in equine form, and feeling drained. As she tried to alleviate the disorientation she felt, Saturn could see Vesta and Juno similarly flat and groggy. Struggling to roll over onto her stomach, Saturn spotted Pallas and Ceres. Then she got a surprise.

Pegasus was there, similarly flat on his side.

"Sailor Moon?" Saturn called out. When there was no answer, her fears racheted up. "Sailor Moon!"

Frantically she struggled to her hooves, spreading her wings to steady herself. Her movements seemed to spur Vesta and Juno. Saturn took two steps toward Pegasus, then stopped. Nerites was there. And he was looking, transfixed, up into the sky. Saturn followed his line of sight, even as Pallas began to stir.

"Ooh, look at the Princess!" gasped Pallas.

Floating above them, surrounded in a warm, pink glow, was Usa - - and she was human. Her head was flung back and her arms and legs were straight and extended a little away from her body. Above her was her pink crystal, glowing almost like a pink sun. It seemed to hold her by her chest, with head and limbs dangling beneath her as her body slowly rotated around.

"What's wrong?" Vesta asked, staggering to her feet. "Is she . . .?"

"No, Vesta," Pallas said gently and confidently. "The Princess hasn't gone with the angels. Pallas can hear her."

Usa began to change. Her clothing, the filmy and revealing nightie she had worn before all of this started, began to fade. Out of the air itself, a white gown began to knit itself around her maturing figure. Three rabbit ear barrettes formed on either side of the part in her hair, just behind her bangs. Pearls formed between them. In moments she had gone from Usa to Princess Usagi.

"Is she," Saturn stammered as Pegasus and Ceres began to stir, "is she making her final ascension?"

Almost in answer, Princess Usagi's gown began to shimmer. Replacing it was a white sailor tunic with a pink ribbon, white opera gloves with pink, yellow and blue piping at the top, and a white skirt with pink, yellow and blue piping at the hem. Pink boots formed on her feet and two decorative white wings formed on the back of her costume. As the crystal gently spun her down to the ground, Eternal Sailor Moon straightened and brought her hands across her heart, bowing her head in a state of ultimate bliss. By now everyone was awake and staring in awe.

Eternal Sailor Moon opened her eyes and looked around. She seemed grateful that all of her friends were alive and unhurt.

"Helios?" she spoke softly, questioningly, upon seeing her love in Pegasus form staring straight at her. "How . . .?"

"You have taken the final step, Maiden," Pegasus told her. "You no longer need me to complete your Sailor Moon form."

"Oh," Sailor Moon said and to the surprise of everyone a look of genuine melancholy descended over her. "I guess it was going to happen sooner or later." Spotting Nerites, she asked, "Do you know if we managed to change the Skoteinos?"

"You did, Princess," Nerites nodded. "The Skoteinos are no more a threat than the morning dew on the grass. You have my gratitude."

"And mine," Kaniss spoke up. Everybody turned and found her on the slope of the hill, at a safe distance from the others. "You have saved this world and all who dwell upon it. The wolves acknowledge their debt to you."

"And I must, in good conscience, extend my apologies for my harsh words, Princess," Nerites continued. Cassandra was a few paces behind him, while the rest of the herd was farther down, cautiously watching Kaniss. "Please forgive them."

"You were upset," Sailor Moon offered. "I get it. I'm just glad everything worked out. There was a point where I wasn't sure it was going to."

"And this new form of yours?" Nerites observed.

"Guess I reached down deep enough to touch something and trigger the transformation," Sailor Moon replied.

"So you will be staying this way?" Nerites asked.

"Yeah," Sailor Moon said, surprised by the question.

"Pity," Nerites mused. "You were such a beautiful horse. Those flanks . . ." He savored the memory for a moment. "May you and your comrades fare well on your return to your world. And Helios - - take care of this one or I may yet steal her away from you."

"Duly warned," Pegasus nodded.

As the equine Senshi gathered around Eternal Sailor Moon, they noticed how deflated she seemed. Saturn in particular noticed that something bothered her friend.

"Sailor Moon?" Saturn inquired. "What is it?"

Her friend pasted on a half-hearted smile. "Let's go home," she said.

The six horses touched their noses to Eternal Sailor Moon's extended hand and in unison called out "Sailor Teleport". The winds began whipping around them. Nerites and Kaniss turned back and watched them as a whirlwind encircled them all. There was a brilliant flash of light and when it died away they were gone. Nerites continued to watch for a few moments, then rejoined Cassandra and his herd.

Several palace maintenance workers turned when they felt the wind inside the palace corridor begin the whip. A swirl of wind at the end of the corridor exploded in light. When the light died away, the workers saw Sailor Moon, her beloved and her senshi.

Just another day in the Crystal Palace.

"WE'RE HUMAN AGAIN!" Ceres exclaimed. Indeed, Helios, Saturn and the senshi had all regained their human forms, while Eternal Sailor Moon retained hers. "God, I never thought I'd be so grateful for such a simple thing!" She turned to Sailor Moon. "Is there anything else we have to do? Because I'd REALLY like to call Hiroki."

"Sure," Sailor Moon nodded. Ceres squealed, hugged her, and then sprinted off.

"Vesta," Pallas thought-cast to her fellow senshi. "Pallas is sorry things didn't work out with the Horsie King."

Vesta looked at her, startled. Then she calmed.

"No big," Vesta thought back. "Wouldn't have worked out anyway. I'm back where I belong and that's a good thing." Pallas beamed at her.

Watching Ceres sprint down the hall until she was out of sight, Sailor Moon turned. There, standing several feet from them all were the King and Queen. A moment passed when nobody moved.

"Usa," Serenity said gratefully. She swooped in and hugged her daughter. "You're back to normal again."

"Yeah, Mom," Sailor Moon replied, hugging her back. "You don't have a horse for a daughter anymore."

"And none the worse for wear, I hope?" Endymion asked, leaning in to share the hug. He pulled back after a few moments. "Your costume is different. Did you take the next step?"

Serenity pulled back and looked her over. "Endymion, you're right! That's Eternal Sailor Moon's uniform! Oh, Usa, I am SO proud of you!"

Serenity hugged the girl again. This time Sailor Moon didn't hug back. Noticing immediately, Serenity pulled back and looked at her daughter inquiringly.

"Usa?" Serenity asked anxiously. "I thought you'd be happy. This is what you've wanted for years, isn't it?"

Reaching in and gently taking possession of her from Serenity, Helios turned Eternal Sailor Moon to him. She avoided eye contact immediately and seemed to struggle to control her emotions. Helios looked in, trying to connect with her.

"Maiden," he began. "What troubles you so?"

She wouldn't answer.

"Maiden, we are all your friends," Helios continued. "You do not need to be embarrassed or fearful around us. We only wish what is best for you. Please tell me what troubles you so."

An eternity passed in which Sailor Moon struggled with whether or not to confide in them. Her love, her parents and her friends all waited anxiously for her. Finally, lip quivering, she swallowed and began.

"I took the step," Sailor Moon said. "I became Eternal Sailor Moon. And I don't need your help to transform anymore."

"Yes," Helios nodded. "We are all quite proud of you."

"So you don't have to stay anymore," she continued hoarsely. "You can go back to Elysian." Her breath shuddered out. A tear trickled down her cheek. "I don't want that. The thought of you being there - - it's so far away. I don't want to have to live without you - - again!"

She collapsed against his shoulder, crying and clutching his robe. Helios put his arms around her and cradled her against him.

"I understand now, Maiden," he said softly. "And I understand your bitter tears and your wounded heart."

"I'm sorry for crying," she whimpered.

"But you have forgotten one thing, Maiden," Helios told her.

Her head whipped up and she stared at him in confusion.

"To separate from you now would cause me as much pain and anguish as it causes you," Helios confessed to her. "Maiden - - Usagi - - I love you, with every particle that makes me who I am. The thought of a life without you, even for a short time and even upon my cherished home of Elysian is a life so desolate that it would be akin to death itself. Just because you no longer need me to transform does not mean I am leaving."

"B-But your duties . . .?" Sailor Moon sputtered.

"Are successfully performed now under the current arrangement," Helios told her. "Maiden, I am never leaving your side. I am staying right where I am." Then a thought occurred to him and he sheepishly turned to the King and Queen. "If you will have me, of course, Your Majesties."

"Never once entertained any other scenario," Endymion smiled.

"Oh, Helios!" Sailor Moon half-squealed, half-sobbed. She flung her arms around him and crushed him to her. "THAT'S MY GUY SAID THAT!"

That drew a laugh from everyone there. Sailor Moon and Helios kissed, gratefully and passionately. Saturn cooed and the others smiled warmly.

"Well, I think I need to start planning a wedding," Serenity murmured to her husband.

"MOM!" Sailor Moon bellowed in exasperation.

"Just a small one," Serenity assured her. "Only seven or eight . . . thousand guests."

Sailor Moon rested her forehead against Helios's, next to his crystal horn. "Are you sure you want to stay and put up with all of this?"

"Wild horses could not drag me away," Helios smiled.

"Cute," Sailor Moon smirked.

"Oh, and I've got the most wonderful gown in mind for you, Honey," Serenity continued.

"Mom, could you let ME AND HELIOS decide when we're going to get married!" the Princess fumed.

"And you're GOING to have a western ceremony," The Queen continued, as if her daughter hadn't spoken. "I don't CARE what Rei says!"

End


End file.
